.COMMUmCATIOSS 



ON 




AND OTHER CONNECTED 



AGRICULTURAL SUBJECTS, 

FROM THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE 

VIRGINIA STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY, FOR 1857. 



THE DRAINAGE OF MARLBOURNE FARM. 



BY EDMUND 'RUFFIN 



D l(UF 



The low-grounds of Marlbourne farm, on the 
Pamunkey River, have remarkable and important 
conditions in regard to the supply of injurious 
water, and its being diverted by proper drainage. 
These conditions, when first noticed by me, and 
also far years afterwards, while they demanded 
my investigation, and more and more directed my 
draining labors, were also supposed to be peculiar 
features of this farm, or of its neighborhood, as 
nonesuch had been then observed elsewhere. But 
it is more probable that the like remarkable cha- 
racters of land and water, and the like require- 
ments and difficulties of drainage, belong also to 
many other and remote localities of bottom-lands 
bordering on this and other rivers. Further — from 
recent and extended personal observations, made 
long after the writing of this report was begun, I 
have learned that the like remarkable and impor- 
tant character of land, and conditions of injuri- 
ous water, extend generally throughout the low 
and level lands of south-eastern Virginia, and the 
much broader surfaces of similar lands in North and 
South Carolina. And I now infer, that through- 
out all this great region, the natural conditions of 
the supply of excessive and injurious water, and 
the great and general difficulty of draining, are 
similar to those which I have had to contend 
with — and which conditions have scarcely any 
v/here been understood, or the difficulties properly 
treated in practical operations. Yel, these very 
conditions which, while neglected or unknown, 
have heretofore operated as insuperable difficulties 
to the effective drainage of such lands, when un- 
derstood, and made to direct the plan and labors of 
draining, will be the best means for both reducing 
their cost, and greatly increasing their efficiency. 



When first occupying this farm, all my previous 
labors and experience in draining had been on 
lands of entirely different character. The general 
principles and laws of draining are indeed uni- 
form. But my former practice, and errors, and 
failures, and also the successful operations on the 
small spaces of narrow and sandy alluvial low- 
grounds of the high and hilly lands of Prince 
George county — bordering on small and rapid 
streams, sometimes hastily and enormously swollen 
by heavy rain-floods pouring down from the hills — 
afforded no precedents, or instruction, for my later 
occupied farm, where almost all the conditions 
were reversed. In some cases, my previous experi- 
ence served to mislead the later efforts, made 
under circumstances so different. A total stran- 
ger to my new locality, and to all that was re- 
quired for its proper drainage, I found no existing 
practices, or even opinions, of other persons, from 
which I could gain any useful lessons for my in- 
struction. Few, if any, of the numerous farms 
bordering on the Pamunkey needed draining labors 
of such difficulty and magnitude as did mine. But 
every such farm needed more or less of additional 
draining; and everywhere, within my limited range 
of observation, there was great deficiency of pro- 
per views to direct such labors, and consequently 
of profitable results from the actual and also very 
laborious operations. 

The extent of land of this farm when first 
boughtand occupied (Jan. 1844,) and thenorsince 
made arable, (exclusive of some 22 acres of high 
table land around the mansion, now included in 
the permanent pasture,) was 73U acres. All this 
is of low-lying land, except some 10 acres of 
Winter Hill, which is a high and narrow spur 
stretching out from the main body of table land. 
(See Map, Figure I.) The later purchase, in 1850, 
of the adjoining Talley tract, of 300 acres in all, 
gave the additional surface for tillage , after all 



DRAINAGE . 



the forest part had been subsequently cleared and 
drained, of about 49 acres of low land, besides 
some 52 acres of the higher terrace, or "third 
low-ground," principally. Thus the two tracts 
which now make Marlbourne farm, together con- 
tain (730—10 = 720-1-49=:) 769 acres of "second 
low-ground" or of the middle terrace. Of "first 
lowground " or the lowest terrace, subject to inunda- 
tion by even the highest freshes of the river, there 
is not an acre of the farm — nor any other ground ex- 
cept along the face of the steep bank of the river. 
Neither is any part of the soil of the farm formed 
by river alluvium, or the deposition of sediment from 
the river floods. In the present condition of the ri- 
ver, and of its highest floods for thousands of past 
years, it may be safely asserted that the river has 
not covered, and could not have affected, any other 
than lands of the lowest terrace, or " first low- 
grounds," which constitute considerable propor- 
tions of many other Pamunkey farms. But even 
these- lowest lands (of other properties,) whether 
rarely or often submerged, have gained but little 
either of accretion or of fertility of soil, from the 
scant and poor sediment of the river floods — and 
in some cases, these lands have lost much soil, 
and even sub-soil, by the recent washing and de- 
nuding action of the strong currents of the high 
freshes. These facts are mentioned to prevent the 
common and entirely erroneous inference of stran- 
gers, that the low-grounds of this river, below the 
head of tide, are of alluvial formation — except, 
(and this but partially,) the lowest lands, still sub- 
ject to inundation, and in some cases also to denu- 
dation. The highest and the middle (or third and 
second) low-grounds entirely, and also the lowest 
for its sub-soil, have been formed mainly by the 
reverse or denuding operation of the great flood, 
which at a very remote (but the latest) geological 
epoch, rushed, from the north-west, over this 
whole region, and washed and scooped out and' 
shaped the now valleys and bottom lands, and the 
present channels of the tide rivers — after the same 
flood had previously deposited its drifted and sus- 
pended materials over the whole surface, and of 
which entire deposit the present high table-lands 
and all their lower beds are formed, as the present 
bottoms were by the earlier deposited earth. The 
great deposition of drift, or suspended materials, 
and that mostly of barren earth, which is general 
over the higher surfaces in our tide-water region, 
also served to add something in material and more 
in fertility and value, to the bottom-lands of this 
farm, as of all other bottom-lands, or high flats, 
bordering on rivers. For though one part of the 
great action of the deep and violent and long- 
passing flood was to wash off" and remove the pre- 
viously accumulated deposits — first down to the 
surface of the now highest terrace, next, by the 
more contracted current, to the middle terrace, 
and still later to the lowest, and finally to the 
present narrow channel or bed of the river — still, 
in the diminution of volume, and fluctuations of 
velocity of the current, there were also some new 
and superficial and partial deposits of sediment 
left on the before denuded terraces. These de- 
posits occurred successively on each terrace, when 
the still covering but then subsiding waters were 
comparatively tranquil, and so the finer and richer 
suspended earths were then let fall, to form the 
surface soils of the bottom lands. This manner 
of action has served to vary the form of the sur- 
face and the composition of the soils, as may be 
seen by any careful observer on the ground, and 
in facts which will be adverted to in the following | 



account. The course of the great flood was in 
the direction of the general course and descent of 
the broad bottom through which the very crooked 
and narrow Pamunkey river now meanders, form- 
ing the low-grounds mostly in different peninsu- 
las or "necks," usually of several miles width. 
Hereabout, the whole bottom varies from 4 to 5 
miles across, from one foot to the other of the high 
table land on both sides. The latest action of the 
ancient flood has left the surface of this farm in 
many long, low, and irregular flat ridges, stretch- 
iiig in the general direction of the great flood, but 
also in some cases varying, as might be inferred 
from the different modes of action, and the diff'e- 
rent courses of particular smaller currents. And 
the ridges also show soils and sub-soils of all tex- 
tures, from the closest and most intractible clay to 
the lightest and loosest sand — and of which soils 
there were, in their original state, all grades of 
quality between poverty and great richness. The 
irregular depressions, or basins, left between the 
different low ridges, or knolls, for the greater part, 
had no sufficient fall, or lower outlets, and there- 
fore they had mostly remained under ponds of 
shallow water, when the land elsewhere had been 
left dry, or bare of water. Into and through these 
former ponds, ffowed the small streams from springs 
in the ravines of the high table land. And in the 
course of ages, the sediment brought down and 
deposited by the turbid rain-ffoods which swelled 
these streams, had served to raise the bottoms of 
these ponds from 2 to 6 feet, with a very close clay, 
and also in most cases had added, latest, a deep, 
black, and extremely rich clay soil. Such, it 
seems to me, were the producing causes of the re- 
markable variety and frequent changes of both 
the different levels of the surface, and of the dif- 
ferent textures and degrees of fertility, of the 
soils of this farm. Reference to the Map, Fig. I. 
and the explanations thereof, will serve best to 
show the variations of the levels of the surface — 
and also the many and great difficulties thereby 
opposed to the drainage of the farsn by even the 
best system of surface and open ditches — and which 
difficulties v.'ould be still more obvious to an ob- 
server of the land itself. This Map (Fig. I.) also 
presents the numerous ditches, all of them open 
and impassable by teams, as they were before my 
own better system was begun. And besides all the 
ditches that I found, there v/ill appear there some 
others which I, at first, deemed necessary and 
therefore dug, while 1 still trusted to, and aimed 
to make more perfect, the former plan of mere 
surface-draining. For the greater convenience of 
reference, and for comparison with the present 
condition of things, in this map (for 1844) there is 
also included the low-ground of the Talley tract, 
which was not occupied until in 1859. Also there 
are there designated the divisions of the farm ac- 
cording to my subsequent six-field rotation, which 
was not established, or devised, until in 1848, and 
which had not been extended regularly to the later 
purchased Talley tract, when (in 1856,) I transfer- 
red the whole property to my children, and when 
the rotation, and its division of fields, were changed 
for a different scheme. 

The whole body of low-land, of both proper- 
ties, had long been cleared and cultivated, except 
about 26 acres of both tracts, and which space is 
within the letters R, I, c, b, H. in Fig. I. This 
land, mostly of rich, low and wet swamp, which 
I found under its original heavy forest growth, was 
cleared and brought under tillage at different times 
from 1845 to 1855. 



^:^' 



53 



P^ I '^ 
^ '^ § 

ft ^ ^ -3 




DRAINAGE 



The map (I.) shows the numerous open ditches 
which had been dug, and were designed to be kept 
open to their first depth, and r.ll of which were then 
deemed indispensable. Yet not one of tliem ope- 
rated properly, or sufficiently for its designed 
purpose. When properly located, and if deep- 
ened and well-shaped, the larger ditches might 
have been made to serve well as stream-carriers, 
and to receive the surface-water only. But of all 
the ditches designed to tap and collect spring or 
under-water, none of them could have been made 
effective, by any care or labor, because it was impos- 
sible for any ditches to be kept open deep enough 
for that purpose, even if any had been dug deep 
enough at first. Therefore, while all of these nu- 
merous ditches, as here marked, were impassable 
by teams, and therefore all constituted great im- 
pediments to tillage — and every one, as serving to 
remove some water, was necessary to be.kept open, 
not one of them served its purpose fully or effec- 
tually; and all the land that had required draining 
at first, was still suffering, more or less, by excess 
of water — and would have so suffered even if 
every ditch had been kept as deep, and in as good 
order, as had been designed at first.* 

The positions of streams and of the larger wet 
ditches, as shbwn on Fig. I, generally indicate, 
with sufficient distinctness, the lower levels of sur- 
face compared with stretches of other ground on 
one or both sides. But there are sundry excep- 
tions to this rule, especially on the higher grounds; 
and some others may be seen on the maps, in cases 
where djtches, to connect detached basins, or to 
drain basins, have to discharge through rims, or 
ridges, of higher surface. Besides the indica- 
tions of lower levels presented in the positions of 
ditches, and the courses of the streams, the grounds 
of the lower and lowest levels are distinguished 
by suitable markings, and by different colors on 
Fig. I. and further, by the marked levelling of dif- 
ferent lines and points, stated in numeral figures, 
on Fig. II. But it should be observed that the 
three different levels indicated by different colors, 
are only relative to adjacent surfaces, or border- 
ing grounds. Absolute differences, or grades of 
elevation, will be indicated according to the actual 
measurements, and all in reference to the lowest 
original surface of the low-ground of the earlier 
purchase, which is the point designed by the nu- 
meral 0, near Jl, the eastern outlet of the present 
main ditch, (Fig. II.) It may be stated, gene- 
rally, that the differences of elevation of adjoin- 

* The engraver of the maps has not correctly copied the 
drawing in the dotted or broken lines, and which defect, to 
prevent njjst.-ilves of tlie reader, will require this additional ex- 
planation. The dotted and bro1<en lines in Fig. I. do not in 
any case represent (/rains or cfitcli e-'i—hnt only imaginary 
hounilary and dividing lines of different fields or properties. 
Therefore wlien these same lines appear in Fig. II. of course 
thej' represent the same imaginary demarkations — and tliere- 
fore need not be mistaken for (even when too mucli resem- 
bling,) the other dotted or broken lines introduced in Fig. II., 

one of which ( ) represents rain-ditches, and the other 

( ) represents covered drains. 

The marks of levelled stations, stretching across from the foot 
of the hill in South Field 1 1, Fig. II., to a a, at the river, should 
have been arranged in a straight line — but which is made 
crooked by incorrect drawing. The numerals at these (and 
also sundry other stations,) show the elevation of the surface, 
(in feet an<l tenths,) counting from the station 0, near A (Fig. 
II.) the lowest arable surface of the orignal tract. All the nu- 
merals indicate heights above the station 0, except the three 
most northern marks along the main ditch (near Q) and two 
others next to and at the river. These are minus quantities— 
or so much lielow 0. The height of the surface of the water- 
bearing stratum (gypseous earth) out-cropping on the river 
bank, is 15 feet below the level of 0, and the river, at low wa- 
ter, is about 35 feet below 0. 



ing surfaces are mostly slight, and the changes 
very gradual. The few exceptions to this rule oc- 
cur where the lowest of the three marked grades 
of surface adjoins the highest, and when the latter 
is also of the sandy dry knolls or ridges. These 
only, where highest, rise to heights from 8 to 12 
feet above the lowest grade, and M'hich extreme 
elevations are in some cases near together. Omit- 
ting a small extent of such highest knolls of the 
second terrace, and the whole of the higher third 
terrace, the whole low-land of the farm would 
seem to the first glance of an observer as very 
nearly level. And when viewed from the edge of 
the nearest high table land, not only this, but the 
like low-grounds of several adjacent farms in sight, 
for miles both in length and breadth, would seem, 
to the eye of a stranger, to be of one uniform 
level surface. 

The textures and degrees of fertility of soil 
vary greatly, and within very close distances. 
The most clayey and the most sandy — richest and 
poorest — the higher and lower levels of surface — 
or the wettest ground (naturally,) and the dryest 
of the farm — severally are, in many places, within 
a few yards of other ground of the most opposite 
conditions. These many and great variations of 
character add greatly to the difficulties of drain- 
age. The land of lowest surface (tinted blue on 
Fig I.) is nearly all of stiff clay. Most of this 
land is supposed to have been formerly covered 
by ponds of greater or less depth. Those which 
were deepest at first, and surrounded by higher 
rims of enclosing ground, are still of lowest rela- 
tive surface, and the sites have been covered by 
rich sediment, forming a black stiff soil. And 
most of such land continued to be rich, because 
too lately or imperfectly drained to have been ex- 
hausted b)' tillage. But some parts of such ground, 
and also the lowest, as the parts near to both the 
out-lets of the present main ditch (»i and Q, Fig. 
II.,) were mostly as poor as any land could be 
found under tillage. These impoverished portions, 
though less formed of recent sedimentary deposit, 
still must have been formerly very rich. But as 
this land had never been half-drained, at best, and 
probably had always been ploughed wet, and of- 
ten tilled when wet, this treatment, much more 
than the exhausting course of cropping, was the 
cause of the remarkable condition of poverty pro- 
duced — and probably brought about before a single 
good crop had ever been raised on this formerly 
rich land. 

In and among, or bordering on, this lowest land, 
there lie the next and but slightly higher grounds, 
(colored green on Fig. I.) These portions are in 
some cases sandy, but mostly are of very stiff yel- 
lowish gray clay, with stiff deep and poor sub- 
soil, of like texture. All these surfaces seem to 
have been of but a moderate degree of fertility at 
first — and generally had been reduced to extreme 
poverty before I began to improve or cultivate 
them. All this land, as well as the still lower 
levels before mentioned, suffered much from the 
effects of wetness, and all needed to be drained 
much more effectually than ever had been done in 
any case. 

Most of the remainder of the land, (entirely 
tinted yellow,) is of the different higher levels of 
the "second low-grounds." In j;eneral, where 
both high and sandy, as is usual, the ground of this ■ 
class needed no draining. It has, generally, a per- 
vious and dry sub-soil, and the like under-beds, and 
thus the soil is naturally and effectually under- 
drained. This land might have been ploughed 



DRAINAGE . 



and tilled flush, (or without ridges and alleys, or 
water-furrows,) except that the spaces were so 
small, or so irregularly intermingled with those of 
lower and wet ground, that ditferent modes of 
tillage would have been inconvenient. The land 
of this class, when of clay soil, or medium loam 
on clay sub-soil, (as generally in East, Middle, 
River, and North Fields,) needed to be cultivated 
in beds, with good deep alleys, and cross-grips 
through all lateral depressions. It will be shown 
that these formerly indispensable surface-drains 
for even high surfaces, are now much less needed. 
In the other two fields, lying between the present 
main ditch {A to Q, Fig. II.,) and the hill-sides 
next to the table-land, there are many parts of this 
higher land, and even far up the slopes of the 
third terrace, (white with yellow out-line, Fig. I.) 
and also on the higher slopes of the table-land it- 
self, that were oozy, and entirely too wet for til- 
lage — and if tilled, to yield any profitable pro- 
duct. The old plan of drainage attempted for 
such land, by shallow open ditches, had been en- 
tirely insufficient, and generally of no useful effect. 
It was some time after my earliest and also impro- 
per labors for draining on this farm, that I first 
learned the following remarkable fact: While there 
were numerous small springs and oozes in the 
higher grounds of the land south and west of the 
main belt of lowest land, through which the pre- 
sent main ditch extends, and spring water could 
be readily reached by digging ditches in many 
parts of the higher grounds of South and West 
Fields, there was not a spring, nor had any vein 
of water been reached by the deepest ditches, in 
all the other four fields east and north of the line 
of the present main ditch. Springs were found 
only, (and these were numerous, and abundant in 
water,) bursting out low down on the face of the 
river bank, or on the sides of as low ravines, emp- 
tying into tlie river. The cause of this strange 
non-appearance of spring, or under-water, and 
that too in land which, for the greater part suffered 
greatly for want of drainage, will be shown here- 
after. 

It should be observed that the different nearest 
levels and grades of land generally pass from one 
to another so gradually as to be almost impercepti- 
ble. It is only where the highest borders on the 
lowest, (yellow touching blue, on Fig. I.,) that a 
considerable diff"erence of level and appearance 
may be inferred to exist. In the much greater 
number of cases, where different elevations of 
ground are indicated by blue and green tints in 
contact, or yellow and green, it should be under- 
stood tliat the actual dividing lines are uncertain, 
and that the land is very far from showing the 
distinct outlines of levels which are necessary, for 
illustration, to be presented on the map. 

When I first took possession of this farm, (Jan- 
uary, 1844,) all proper care of the previous plan of 
drainage, such as it was, had been so much and so 
generally neglected, that I could not at first see or 
understand the operation of the numerous existing 
ditches — so much were they choked in many places, 
and their former action prevented. Numerous as 
were the ditches, and nearly all of them then 
holding water, and passing it off" continually, to 
some extent, over more or less of obstructions, all 
the lower land was everywhere extremely wet — 
and but little, if any except the highest and sandy 
knolls, seemed then dry enough for tillage. The 
obstructions, caused by the washing down of sand 
in the upper parts of the stream-ditches, and of 
naud in the lower parts, the caving in of the sides. 



the rooting of hogs, and the long-trodden crossing- 
ways of cattle, made almost every ditch, (where 
not quite filled,) a miry pool of water; which, 
whether derived partly from springs, (as I at first 
erroneously inferred to be general,) or immediately 
and only from rains, the supplies of water seemed 
to have permanent or long-continuing sources. 
Indeed, in winter and spring, water was always 
passing off" slowly from every such obstructed 
ditch. Having heard that the farm had formerly 
been under the charge of some good managers and 
drainers, I too hastily thence inferred that the ex- 
isting ditches had been properly planned and placed 
for the experienced wants of the land; and that, 
if cleaned out, and still more, if enlarged and 
deepened where obviously insufficient, they would 
at least sei've to keep the fields dry. It was mid- 
winter when my operations were begun; and the 
ditches and the land were then in the'wettest con- 
dition. It was essential to remove the injurious 
water as soon as possible, from at least enough 
land for the next corn crop. The then main 
ditch, descending from P to Jl, Fig. I. and the re- 
ceiver from nearly all the other ditches, though 
the most needing deepening, could not then be 
helped, because of the strong 'current, and the 
margins, everywhere raised by banks, being too 
high, and the sides too steep, to permit laborers, 
standing on the banks, to clean out and open the 
ditch, with hoes. But in this imperfect and tedi- 
ous mode, (to prevent the laborers standing in 
water,) most of the old and shallow ditches were 
then cleaned out; and subsequently, in warmer wea- 
ther, the main ditch, and also the long and (as 
then supposed) important ditches of Noi'th and 
Middle Fields were not only cleaned out to their 
first depth, but still more deepened by the spade. 
It was not until after much of such deepening had 
been done, that I found that a large proportion of 
it was worse than useless; and that narrow grips, 
or, at most, shallow rain-ditches would sufliice, 
wliere I had deepened old ditches, and dug some 
new ones, to reach and draw off" under-v/ater 
where none could be found. Much of this old 
ditching, after this deepening, and also most of 
my early new work in aid, had to be filled up, at 
different later times, after being substituted, or 
rendered entirely useless, by the making other and 
effective drains in other places. 

Deeming it proper and necessary- in a report of 
this character that the soil and surface of the land 
in question, and especially the relations to wet- 
ness, should be described clearly, the foregoing 
description has been made as full as seemed to be 
required for the object. But for the remainder, 
and in reference to all the actual proper subse- 
quent operations, a much more concise method 
will be adopted — omitting all details of practice, 
and, for the greater part, stating only general 
operations and results, and the general changes 
already produced, and others deemed certainly in 
progress, and which will occur hereafter, from 
labors alreadycompleted, or others still in progress. 

The great and all-important cause of the gene- 
ral wetness of this land, (the confined under-water,) 
was not even suspected, until after I had begun to 
construct covered drains, deeper, indeed, but still 
much too shallow at first, in substitution of the 
previous general system of shallow open ditches. 
And it was some years still later, before I knew 
certainly that this cause of wetness was generally 
existing beneath the low-grounds. And even then, 
after learning that the pervading and general source 
of wetness was under-lying and confined and up- 



DRAINAGE 



ward-pressing water — and thence correctly infer- 
ring the proper remedy — stili I could not adopt the 
proper and then obvious means for relief, because 
not tlien able to command, for deepening, the pro- 
per out-lets for the water. Omitting all details, 
both of my wrong and proper procedure, I will 
proceed to describe the natural conditions of the 
under-beds of the land, and the under-water, and 
to state, in general terms, the several different plans 
of drainage successively attempted. 

Under the whole body of low-ground, there lies 
a bed of wet and generally pure sand, or other 
permeable* earth, of unknown thickness. The up- 
per surface of this sand bed approaches to being 
horizontal, but has a slight general dip, in the 
direction of its course from beneath the high table- 
land towards the river, in the bank of which this 
bed crops out. The dip is not uniform or regular, 
and the height of the surface of the sand-bed has 
many variations. Under all the lowest land, it is 
rarely so near the surface as 4 feet, and is more 
generally 6 or 7 feet below the surface of the soil. 
Under the high sandy knolls or ridges, the sand^ 
bed rises higher, and intermixes insensibly (as to 
texture) with the higfler and dry sandy sub-soil. 
Tlie annexed conjectural profile of the strata will 
serve for better explanation. 

In the entire profile or cross-section of the strata, 
(embracing Fig. III. and IV.,) the perpendicular 
distances, and also the dip of the strata, are much 
exaggerated, so as to be made plain to the eye; but 
the principle of the operation of the water, and of 
the remedy, is not thereby affected. 

Suppose the wet sand-bed, e. Fig. III., to extend, 
from under the higher land, descending very gra- 
dually and slightly towards the river, passing first 
under the high sandy soil a, Fig. III., and next un- 
der the black alluvial clay of the lowest level, 6, 
c, k, Fig. III. and IV. (tinted blue in Fig. I.) — next 
under the slightly higher clay soil k to t (tinted 
green in Fig. I.) and its like impervious sub-soil 
and under-bed of clay — to the river bank, where 
the water of the sand-bed first found discharge in 
a line of numerous and copious springs, which 
burst out over the top of the impervious bed be- 
low. This lower bed here is of gypseous earth — 
which elsewhere is replaced by mari, or by clay. 
Here formerly was the first continuous or consi- 
derable out-flowing of the water, after its long 
and slow passage, by lateral percolation, under the 
low-grounds, for some two miles of distance from 
under the table-land. 

It may be inferred that the same sand-bed ex- 
tends, in the opposite and ascending direction for 
miles under the high table-land, and the covering 
clay stratum, and gradually rising to "crop out," 
and to form the expanded general soil at some re- 
mote locality.* There the rain sinks through the 
surface soil into the lower sand, and to the next 
lower and impervious bed — and thence the water 
percolates laterally along the dip of the beds, to 
supply and to surcharge the continuation of the 
sand-bed under the low-grounds, and thence to the 
river. In the earlier portion of this long under- 
ground passage of the water, and where it had the 
highest elevation, it is probable that the sand-bed 
was never quite filled by water — and therefore, 
while oozing through, and glutting the lower sand, 
for a long distance, the upper layer of the sand- 
bed might still keep dry. But as the rate of the 



• In this neighborhood this sand-bed probably reaches the 
surface and forms the general soil and sub-soil of the level 
aandy ridge between tUe Pamunkey and Cbickahominy rivers« 




SOUTH 



Co f^. 



iMain 
Ditch. 







I 

o 



|5J 






k) 



I- 



Si- 



>■ 

< 



NORTH 



DRAINAGE 



lateral progress of the water, and of its final dis- 
charge, was much slower than the average supply 
to the upper sources (and elsewhere) by rain, the 
obstructed water would necessarily fill the sand-bed 
•'ijatsome lower place, (as under 6, Fig. III.) up to the 
impervious clay above; and still farther on, and 
lower, the water would press upward, in propor- 
tion to the measure of the higher level of the dis- 
tant water, and the pressure of its weight on the 
water confined below. According to a well-known 
law of hydrostatics, water, so confined between 
two inclined and impervious beds, and pressed on 
by the weight of all the remote water standing at 
a higher level, would rise perpendicularly, if a ver- 
tical passage were afforded by a well, or an auger- 
hole, to a height equal to that of the distant and 
higher standing water, pressing thereupon. 

Therefore, if the sand-bed was surcharged, and 
its water pressing upward with sufficient force un- 
der 6, (Fig. III.) where the glutted bed approaches 
nearest to the surface, a spring, or ooze, might 
there be formed, either permanent, or otherwise 
flowing or oozing out only when the sand-bed was 
fullest of water. Or, even without showing any 
separate water, the soil there might generally be 
too damp and cold for healthy production. 

The longer the lateral course and passage of the 
confined water, and the lower its forced depression, 
by the superincumbent impervious bed, the greater 
"would be its tendency to rise, by filtration. Under 
these circumstances, wherever the surcharged sand- 
bed passed under clay, there would rise injurious 
dampness by means of upward pressure and filtra- 
tion, or still higher by the operation of capillary 
attraction of the upper earth. And this injury 
from wetness might occur even where no water 
was ever found in the digging of ditches, or was 
seen separate, except sucli as had fallen in rain on 
the surface, and which could not sink and escape 
by percolation, because the lower bed was already 
full of moisture, and could receive nomore. 

But in the case of a partial discharge of water 
at 6 (Fig. III.) or not, either the greater portion, 
or the whole, of the under-water, still surcharging 
the sand-bed, would continue to press onward iu 
the direction of the dip of the bed and its imper- 
vious cover, to beneath g, and thence to berteath 
k and I, the clay soil of higher elevation — and 
thence, under the still higher and also dry sandy 
land near the river, to s, the out-let in springs 
bursting out on the surface of the lower impervious 
bed. 

Before any drainage had been attempted, and 
also, and to great extent, after the former shallow 
and insufficient ditching, the constant upward pres- 
sure of the confined under-water served to keep 
the lower parts of the incumbent beds always 
damp, and very unfavorable to tillage, and to the 
production of the soil above, even though no water 
might be seen to rise, or to stand; and none was 
so seen in the low-grounds, except in some very 
few feeble and terajjorary springs, and none of 
these north of the line of the present main ditch. 
With these inconsiderable exceptions, the only 
water seen was that of the several streams which 
passed through the farm, and the rain-water which, 
when in excess, stood for more or less time on 
every low depression — and also wherever the land 
generally suffered from moisture, without showing 
any other than rain-water. Accordingly, the only 
aim of the earlier attempts to drain, (i. e. on the 
first plan,) was to collect the rain-water from the 
surface, and to conduct it off with the streams and 
their temporary rain-floods — which objects were 



I but imperfectly attained. The general opinion 
then was, (and perhaps is now,) that draining was 
' only required for land where water, either stand- 
I ing or flowing, was visible on the surface, or 
j could be readily reached by shallow ditches. 
! This first method of draining, in former use on 
this farm, was to make open ditches to carry off 
the permanent streams, to the lowest and then 
only outlet on the farm, (which was at Ji., Fig. I.) 
These ditches, being too narrow and shallow, 
very slowly carried off the rain-floods also — which 
then, from every heavy rain, rose above the mar- 
gins of all the principal ditches, and overflowed 
the bordering low-grounds, and sometimes the dis- 
tant basins, filled by refluent water from the swol- 
len main stream. Numerous smaller, and also 
open ditches, were cut wherever there appeared 
oozing water, or wherever rain-water collected in 
basins. These operated very partially and imper- 
fectly. The best possible operation of these small 
ditches, and when in their best condition, could 
only be to take off the surface rain, or other wa- 
ter, which was too much in excess to be absorbed 
by the earth, or retained on its surface. Such 
shallow ditches nowhere reached the glutted sand- 
bed — did not draw off any of its confined water — 
and could not lessen the upward pressure, and the 
great and general cause of wetness of the land. 
Yet every such ditch, at some times, served to 
gather and carry off a little of the injurious water, 
which after being drawn up from below, by insen- 
sible filtration, saturated the upper soil in many 
places; and therefore every ditch, seeming to be 
of some use, was supposed to be indispensable — 
while all of them together produced but very little 
benefit, and no complete drainage anywhere. Re- 
ference to Fig. I. will show all these numerous 
open ditches, which formerly were dug, and were 
designed to be kept open. They were dug no 
deeper than they were, because the need of deep 
draining was not then even suspected. And if the 
necessity had been then understood, it would have 
been impossible to keep ditches open to the suffi- 
cient draining depth. 

Before the next, or the second method was begun, 
(my first improvements by covered drains,) I was 
aware of the importance, (as the very foundation 
of any system of general drainage,) Of deepen- 
ing the out-let, and deepening and widening the 
stream-ditches leading to it. And this workwas^ 
soon begun — including the substitution, by new 
ditches, of some of the old courses that were obvi- 
ously and entirely wrong in their position. But 
it was not until in 1851, after the purchase of the 
adjoining Talley tract, that I was enabled to make 
the additional northern and lower out-let, (at Q, 
Fig. II.,) and thereby was permitted to begin pro- 
perly the third method, and the only proper plan 
of drainage for this land, by deepening the princi- 
pal ditches into the sand-bed, and thereby tapping 
and discharging its before confined water. But 
this reference is in advance of the actual proce- 
dure. 

The second method of draining attempted was by 
means of covered drains. These, taken from the 
then lowest places of discharge, at the bottoms of 
the nearest open stream ditches, (as at g, Fig. 
III.,) were extended to every wettest spot (as 6 
and o) and along every oozing line and slope. 
These drains, designed to be covered as soon as 
completed, were dug as deep as their out-lets 
permitted, so as for them to have a slight descent — 
and they usually reached the glutted sand-bed, or 
its water forcing a way upward, at the upper end 



DRAINAGE . 



of the digging, where the sand-bed rose higher. 
Thus every such ditch received some of the water 
forced up by hydrostatic pressure, and of course 
every one did some good in lessening the surcharge 
of water, and reducing the general and pervading 
evil of the confined water. While much of this 
woric was in progress, and while finding many 
evidences of particular cases of upward pressure 
of under-water, still I had not recognized the 
general existence of this pressure of water from 
below. If knowing it in many places where no 
water, or only a little by slow filtration, was found, 
and which could not be reached by the spade, it 
might have been tapped by an auger-hole, and 
drawn up vertically into the ditcli and so con- 
ducted away. It was much later that good use 
was made of this aid. With all their defects of 
both plan and construction, and especially that of 
all the early diggings being too sliallow, the co- 
vered drains generally served their designed pur- 
poses, at least as long as they continued to operate. 
But, for want of sufficient depth (that being pre- 
vented by the then shallow out-lets, and prin- 
cipal open ditches,) and for other errors of con- 
struction, which experience enabled me to cor- 
rect in later operations, many of these early-made 
covered drains failed partially, and in some cases 
entirely, and were repaired, or substituted by 
deeper and effective drains. In Fig. II., where all 
the covered drains are marked, wherever two 
or more are very near to, or cross each other, it 
indicates that the first had failed, and had been 
substituted by another. 

As the deepening of the old lower part of the 
main ditch, and the deep digging of the new part, 
were in gradual progress from 1844 to 1855, and 
the principal tributary stream-ditches were deep- 
ened in proportion, every covered drain, made in 
later times, could have a deeper out-let, and there- 
fore could be sunk deeper than the older ones, and 
was so much the more operative, and will be so 
much the more durable in its operation. 

Reference to Fig. III. will better explain the early 
use and operation of the covered drains. In wet 
and oozy spots, as near 6, shallow open side 
ditches, o, had formerly served merely to take off 
such part of the surplus of under-water as there rose 
to the surface in winter and spring, or when the 
under-water stood higher than that level. These 
ditches did not reach the surface of the summer 
height of the water in the sand-bed, and therefore, 
in summer they were useless for their designed 
purpose. Afterwards, when a covered drain was 
extended from the then bottom of the old main 
ditch (??.) a.t g, along the dotted line from g to the 
old side-ditch at o, and that side-ditch also deep- 
ened and covered, then the new digging being sunk 
below the summer height of the water in the sand,- 
bed, operated to draw off water at all times—though 
still to but small depth, and with no aid from up- 
ward pressure of the water, as there was no con- 
finement of the water there. 

Later, when the main ditch, at h, was sunk, 
(first by the auger and afterwards by the spade,) low 
enough to tap the confined water in the sand-bed, 
the water, under the hydrostatic pressure, would 
rise with force into the ditch, and its level would 
be lowered in proportion in the sand-bed, and by 
this lower and more effectual draining of the sand- 
bed, all the neighboi'ing covered drains, as shallow 
as the one here represented, would be left dry, and 
become useless for their designed object of drain- 
ing the under-water of the sand-bed. 

All the covered drains which reached water in 



the sand-bed were dug on "the south side of the 
present main ditch (Fig. II.) A few which were 
made on the north side, (as SL, xy, and at R, Fig. 
II.) though deep and well constructed, reached no 
water, even with boring extended into the sand- 
bed. The reason for this will be seen hereafter. 

As soon as each field, or separate large portion of 
land, was provided with covered drains, the older 
open ditches were- mostly rendered superfluous and 
useless, and were filled with earth. The three prin- 
cipal streams only, (South, South-west, and West 
Branches,) which brought in much surface-water 
and rain-floods (and also mucli sand,) from high 
land outside cf this farm, were left in open and 
deepened ditches; and a few other smaller ditches 
were left open for full trial, which are designed 
to be soon converted to covered drains. These are 
the ditches VU, x, and ah, (Fig. II.) in West Field, 
and cd, or ef, or perhaps both, in South Field. 
The covered-drains are invisible at the surface of 
the earth, and of course no impediment to tillage. 
The stream-ditches which will remain open will 
be almost the only impediments, and even these 
obstructions will be much lessened in importance, 
by the sloping of their sides, and lowering of their 
margins. A comparison of the number of ditches 
formerly open, and all of which then obstructions 
to the passage of teams, as shown on Fig. I., and 
the few now open, and the still fewer to continue 
open, will display the great advantage gained in the 
mere removal of impassable obstructions to teams, 
and preventions to ploughing and tillage. 

After all the covered drains which were at 
first deemed essential had been constructed, on 
the land first occupied, I obtained, by purchase, 
the adjacent land, Talley's, (shown in Fig. I.) 
which first enabled me to give another and lower 
place of discharge to the waters of half of the 
whole farm — and also put in my possession the 
head sources (on the third terrace,) of sundry 
springs and under-ground veins, which before I 
could not command, nor their issues into my for- 
mer property. These new and important facili- 
ties I proceeded to put to use, as soon as my other 
labors permitted, by extending the main ditch, 
enlarged and deepened, entirely through the cen- 
tral low-grounds, and making the new out-let (at 
Q, Fig. II.,) as deep as the neighboring property 
would permit — and the whole ditch (1900 yards) as 
deep as could then be safely kept open. To obtain 
greater draining depth than could be done at first by 
the spade, the auger was used to bore through the 
impervious clay bottom (of the earlier excavations,) 
and into the glutted sand-bed, by which much of 
the under-water was drained upward, in advance 
of the later and still deeper, and much more ef- 
fectual excavation by the spade. All of the glut- 
ted sand-bed, when first exposed, or tapped, is 
quick-sand. And even if the first digging could 
have been sunk deep enough everywhere to pene- 
trate the quick-sand, it would not have been safe 
to do so at first. If then attempted to be dug into, 
the fluid quick-sand would flow in from the sides 
like water — and thus leaving the solid upper clay 
without support, it would fall in, and nearly fill 
the ditch. To prevent this evil, it was necessary 
at first barely to reach the quick-sand, if it could 
be reached by digging — and then leave it to dis- 
charge the before confined water through the new 
out-let thus afforded, until the general cleaning out 
of the ditches in the next spring season. Then the 
upper sand, previously opened, and before quick 
or fluid, would, by being drained, have become 
firm; and then a layer (of 7 or 8 inches thick,) 



D R A I N A^ E . 



could be dug out, before agaia reaching and having 
again to stop at the sand still quick. In this man- 
ner, and in successive years from 1850 to 1855, 1 
gradually enlarged the whole main ditch, and deep- 
ened it to 6 feet generally, and to 7 at one point — 
reaching the quick-sand for two-thirds of the whole 
length of 1900 yards, and excavating the bottom 
into what had been quick-sand full two feet in some 
parts. Also the quick-sand has- been reached by 
deepening with the spade, for some 1000 yards 
length of the lower parts of the several larger tri- 
butary streams, and of the upper part of the main 
stream, which is formed by their confluence, (at 
;), Fig. II.) Only at and near the old out-let of 
the main ditch, .4 (Fig. II.,) the depth is still less 
than 4 feet, and the quick-sand is not approached — 
because of my not being allowed to lower the dis- 
charge througli the adjoining and lower land. 
This deep ditching into the under-bed of glutted 
sand was the third method used for draining this 
land, and the only correct principle of procedure. 
The object had before been but partially effectea 
by the previous and numerous covered drains, 
most of which derived their supplies of water from 
the sand-bed below — and in most cases of the 
earlier works, when the sand had not been exposed 
to the eye, or its presence and close neighborhood 
then known. And as the constructing, of covered 
drains and the later deep digging of the principal 
open ditches were in progress together, for some 
years of the same time, and as both plans were, 
and still are, in operation together, their separate 
effects cannot be estimated with any opproach to 
accuracy. 

The actual and the necessary operation of this 
penetrating, for such long extent of diggings, the 
before confined water of the sand-bed, is to draw 
in as much water therefrom as can find a lower 
or more ready discharge by this new and lower 
out-let than existed before. And in proportion to 
this measure of relief, or the reducing the previous 
glut of the sand-bed, so much will be lessened the 
former upward pressure of the confined water, and 
its universal though slow discharge to the surface 
by insensible filtration. The lateral passage of 
the under-water, through the sand-bed, from be- 
neath the hills to the nearest new out-let into the 
deep ditches, is still from 600 to 1100 yards of 
distance — through which, the water has to force 
its way through fine sand, and with very slight 
descent. Of course, such passing of the under- 
water must be extremely slow. But, gradually, 
the small veins in the loose sand must be washed 
out larger at and near their out-lets, and these 
openings will extend higher and higher into the 
body of the sand-bed, and the v/ater will then flow 
out faster. The facility for percolation , and the con- 
sequent better draining operation, maybe expected 
to increase for years to come. But already, the pro- 
gress of the operation, though slow, is manifest, 
both in the greater general dryness and good tilth 
* of the soil, and also in the laying dry of some co- 
vered drains, and the lessening the flow of water 
from many others. These latter effects can only 
result from lower discharges having been given for 
the water of the sand-bed. Should the deepening 
of the main ditches into the sand-bed serve to keep 
permanently free from water 6 inches depth only 
of the upper layer ©f the sand, that would be 
enough to cut off the previous permanent supply 
of under-water to every older covered drain — and 
would prevent ail the former upward pressure of 
water, and its former effect of keeping all the 
earth above too damp. Further — by the removal 



of the glut of water from the few upper inches 
depth of the sand, so much of the sand-bed would 
thereby be changed from being a continual source 
and supply of wetness, to a sure means of dryness 
to all the over-lying earth and soil. For then, 
there being no wet earth above the sand to consti- 
tute an impervious bed, (as all wet earth is imper- 
vious to more water,) the excess of rain-water, 
instead of remaining in pools in every slight de- 
pression of the surface, will sink into and filtrate 
through the then pervious under-earth (even if it 
be clay,) to the then drained sand below, to be 
therein absorbed, carried down to the lower glut, 
and with the other water pass off to the nearest 
lower out-let. A layer of dry (or well drained) 
sand, at from 5 to 7 feet below tlie surface of level 
land, will as certainly keep the surface soil drained, 
as the same sand, if always surcharged with con- 
fined water, will surely make the surface-soil wet — 
and will render all efforts to drain the soil of but 
slight benefit, until the surcharge of w"ater, and its 
upward pressure, shall have been removed. 

So far, nothing has been said of the draining of 
the larger portion of the land, lying north of the 
present main ditch, (Fig. II. and IV.) And almost 
Hothing had been done especially for that object, 
except to keep open rain-ditches through all the 
lowest depressions of surface, and grips through the 
slightest depressions, and to have all this land, as 
elsewhere, kept in beds and alleys, (or " ridge and 
furrow" culture,) so as to lead off, as quickly as 
could be, the surface-water derived directly from 
rains. To these imperfect drainage operations, 
always formerly in use, I could devise no means 
of improvement, other than more perfect execu- 
tion of that plan. Much of the soil was of the 
stiff clay of medium elevation, (h to /, Fig. IV. 
and of green tint in Fig. I.,) all of which suffered 
from wetness, and yet in Avhich no practicable 
depth of ditching could find under-water. The 
causes of both these facts may be seen in the pro- 
file of strata exhibited in Fig. III. and IV. The 
water in the sand-bed, below this higher clay sur- 
face, k to I, had pressed upward in the same way 
as elsewhere, and as has already been described. 
And though the over-lying earth was there so much 
thicker, that thickness did not prevent the earth 
being injuriously affected, and up to its surface, by 
the upward pressure of the water confined below. 
The rain falling in excess on the surface, could 
not sink into the under-beds, except in dry sea- 
sons — (for undrained soil isthedryest of all and very 
dry and hard in dry seasons — ) and of course a 
small portion of the injurious excess of rain-water 
could only be drawn olf, by means of alleys, grips 
and rain-ditches, and slowly and imperfectly, be- 
cause of the almost perfectly level surface of this 
clay soil. 

The removing or lessening of the general sur- 
charge of water, by the later tapping the sand- 
bed along the -main ditch and elsewhere, has re- 
duced the upwai'd pressure, and consequent wet- 
ness of soil, on .the north side as much as on the 
south, though in a different mode. And the drain- 
ing effect of the main-ditch on the north side is 
the more manifest, because nothing more has there 
been done than had always before operated. In- 
deed much less is now done than formerly. For 
some of the former wet and impassable ditches are 
now but shallow and usually dry grips; and many 
former grips are no longer opened. A large space 
of this land (in River Field,) for which beds and 
alleys, and also sundry grips, had been heretofore 
deemed indispensable, has been tilled in corn this 



DRAINAGE 

/ 



unusually wet year (1857) with flush ploughing, 
and without a grip or water-furrow — or there ap- 
pearing any indication of the want of either — the 
crop being tlie best ever grown on the land. By 
cutting off, at the main ditch, so much of the for- 
mer supply of under-water, probably all the for- 
mer upward pressure of water has been now re- 
moved from this land — and the upper layer of the 
sand-bed may already serve to drain from, instead 
of supplying water to, the surface soil. This ma- 
nifest change, and draining effect has been pro- 
duced generally on land of this description lying 
as much as half a mile from the nearest part of the 
main ditch, the deepening of which is the only 
known cause. This condition of things will serve 
to explain why the covered drains dug north of 
the main ditch have not operated to draw any un- 
der-water. 

If my views and deductions are correct, the 
draining effects of tapping the quick-sand bed, and 
reducing its surcharge of water, will increase for 
a long time to come. And as soon as the effect 
extends so as to drain the whole upper layer of 
the sand-bed, then all the covered drains should 
cease to flow — and serve only (and for that would 
still serve well,) in aid of surface draining, to 
draw and to speedily discharge, any excess of rain 
that may fall on the bordering land, and whicii 
will quickly find its way into any neighboring co- 
vered drains. 

Besides in the greater depth of draining, there 
has been effected, in connection with the ditches, 
much improvement, which it will he enough here 
to slightly mention. The great depth of an open 
stream ditch *can only be maintained by well and 
broadly sloping the sides — having the width of the 
top not less than thrice the perpendicular depth of 
the ditch, and the bottom as narrow as can convey 
the ordinary stream. To this shape most of the 
open ditches have been made to approach, through 
greater or less portions of their courses — and the 
work will be persevered in until all that are de- 
signed to be kept open shall have been brought to 
the shape and proportions named. When this 
widening of the top and sloping of the sides shall 
have been completed for the central and higher 
portion of the main ditch, then that portion of the 
bottom may be sunk a foot lower, so as to pene- 
trate to the quick-sand throughout. Already, by 
thus lowering the margins, and sloping the sides 
of the rain-ditches, (of which the bottoms usually 
are dry, except immediately after the fall of rain,) 
— and of which work, much is effected by the 
plough, and when ploughing to prepare for tillage — 
most of the length, of the rain-ditches, even now, 
are no longer obstructions to the passage of teams, 
or the running of ploughs, carts, or even the work- 
ing of reaping machines. In the last harvest, 
(of 1857,) the reaping machine safely and effec- 
tually cut across one of these completed and pro- 
perly shaped rain-ditches, along which good wheat 
stood within a few inches of the middle of the firm 
bottom. Yet this ditch formerly was a standing 
puddle of mire and water, 3 feet deep from the 
top of its then raised banks, and served to ob- 
struct tillage and prevent the growing of crops 
for full 12 feet of width, besides the damage to 
the tilled crops by the teams turning on both sides 
of the ditch. Yet the bottoms of these ditches, 
are now deeper than in their best original state, 
and are far more effective for draining than any 
depth could cause, if without the present lowered 
and sloped margins. By extending this additional 
improvement to all the open ditches — and mainly 



by ploughing, (when preparing the field for corn,) 
so as always to throw every furrow-slice in the 
direction from the ditches and grips — all the rain- 
ditches will hereafter be nearly obliterated, as im- 
pediments to tillage; and tlie obstruction of tlie 
larger stream-ditches will be very much lessened. 
Where parts of the rain-ditches are already so 
shaped as no longer to impede tillage (or plough- 
ing across, if dsired,) so much of the n)arks for 
such ditches are omitted on Fig. II. But after a 
fcv.^ more years, and of ploughings from these 
ditches, scarcely any of these present impediments 
to tillage will remain — and the now obstructing 
rain-ditches, though then as deep and as operative 
as ever, will be much less noticeable in the fields, 
than the marks for them now appear on the maps. 

The higher land, or third terrace, throughout, 
(Fig. I., white with yellow outlines,) which had no 
ditches prior to my occupancy, neverlheless re- 
quired, and has received, much under-draining. 
The injurious under-v/ater, there, was derived 
from higher sources than the general sand-bed. 
Therefore these covered drains will not be laid 
dry by the deepening of the main ditch, or any 
other now open ditches. 

An important improvement has latterly been 
made, of different character; not operating di- 
rectly to drain, but indirectly, by diverting or 
dividing the great rain-floods which came down 
the bed of South Branch from high and hilly lands 
outside of the low-grounds and the farm. This 
stream formerly pursued the verv circuitous course 
shown in Fig. I. (from T by" P and S to .^.) 
Since, by cutting a ditch along the boundary 
line of the farm, and the straiglitest course per- 
missible, to the eastern out-let Jl, V\g. II., about 
half the length of the previous passage of the wa- 
ter has been saved; and much injury prevented, in 
reducing the height of the floods of the before con- 
fluent streams. From this cause, added to the more 
important general deepening and enlarging of the 
main stream ditch, and its having the additional 
out-let at Q, in latter years it has rarely occurred 
that any rain-flood has overflowed a few of the 
lowest spots of tillage land. 

The changes, and the beneficial effects of the 
whole under-draining, both by the numerous co- 
vered drains, and the few later deep open ditches, 
though certainly very great, and also highly profi- 
table, cannot be estimated otherwise than gene- 
rally, and much on supposition. The actual and 
known increased production of the farm, which 
occurre.d. during and since these operations, is no 
correct measure of the benefit of draining. For — 
besides extensions of cultivated surface by the 
later purchase of very poor land, (as was all the 
old tilled part of Talley's,) and the gradual bring- 
ing under culture 26 acres of new cleared and rich 
forest swamp land — there were in progress other 
improvements, and especially that of early and 
general marling. How much of the subsequent 
and general improvement of fertility, and actual 
increase of crops, may be due to marling, or to 
better tillage, and a better rotation, including the 
introduction of the pea-crop for manuring — and 
how much is due to draining, or might have been 
obtained by draining alone — I cannot know, and 
will not hazard a conjectural estimate. But high 
as I place the fertilizing effects of marling, these 
could not have been oljtained, (nor the proper 
benefits of any other manures,) if on other than 
drained or dry soils. And except on the higher 
I and naturally dry ground, my marling would have 
I been of but little effect, without the aid of draining. 



10 



DRAINAGE 



Neither did the draining, even when most effec- 
tual, convert the before unproductive ground at 
once to a productive condition. All the naturally 
wet land, that had not been too v/et for the ordi- 
nary' mechanical operation of ploughing, had been 
regularly tilled, and had been reduced by cropping 
and wet ploughing to extreme sterility. This was 
the case with nearly all the' higher wet land, 
(marked green on Fig. I.,) and on parts of the 
loivest land also. After such land had been well 
drained, it still was so poor as to be worthless in 
its then condition; and even after marl had been 
applied, it was still very poor, and only then ren- 
dered capable of being well and profitably im- 
proved and enriched, by the further use of putres- 
cent or alimentary manures, aided by proper til- 
lage, and manuring crops. 

Further, the addition of more surface for crops, 
by the bringing in the extremely poor land later 
bought — and also the poorest parts of the older 
purchase, (at first omitted from tillage because of 
their extreme barrenness,)— while adding something 
more to the general or gross products of the farm, 
served to lessen, and to keep down, and still keeps 
down even to tliis time, the general or average rate 
of production to the acre — which is the much surer 
indication of the measure of improvement, or of its 
increase. For these reasons, tlie statement of for- 
mer and recent crops would be delusive, and lead 
to incorrect conclusions — in some cases making 
the improvement appear greater than the truth, 
and in others, much less. It is then with the claim 



for allowances for all these grounds for incorrect 
deductions, that the following statement of the 
principal grain crops will be submitted. 

It should be premised that the crops for the first 
two or three years were made on the then dryest 
portions of the land, and where the want of draining 
was then least felt. Also very early in my occu- 
pancy, the old ditches were all well cleaned out, 
(and some of them also deepened,) and the former 
plan of draining (by the first method,) was in its 
best operation. No wheat had been sown for 
1844; and ray first crop, in 1845, was grown on 
detached pieces of the dryest and richest land that 
the farm offered, without regard to the order of 
culture, or any plan of rotation. Also I had pre- 
viously marled part of the ground for this first 
crop of wheat. All these circumstances made 
that crop much lai'ger than a fair average field or 
portion of the farm would then have yielded. It 
is understood that previous to my occupancy, the 
land (including the subsequent Talley purchase) 
had never yielded as much as 1000 bushels of wheat 
in any one year, and rarely reached to near that 
quantity. In my occupancy, as well as before, no 
guano, or other bought or transported manure, 
(other than marl,) has ever been applied to this 
land. Neither has any hired or additional labor 
been employed for the drainage or other improve- 
ments, more than the always insufficient supply of 
hand and team-labor, used for the tillage, cropping, 
and general management of the farm. 



CROPS OF WHEAT AND CORN MADE ON MARLBOURNE FARM. 





WHEAT. 


CORN. 1 




Tears. 


Acres. 


Crop. 

Bushels. 


Average 
to acre. 


Acres. 


Crop 
Bushels. 


Average 
to acre. 


REMARKS. 


1844 
1845 
1846 
1847 
1848 
1849 
1850 
1851 
1852 
1853 
1854 
1855 
1856 
1857 


134 

201 
235 
256 
263 
238 
267 
259 
255 
287 
333 
327 
351 


1977 

2432* 

3511 

5127 

3375* 

4595 

6072 

5332 

4790 

5830 

8004 

5647* 

8410 


14.75 
11 42 
15.32 

20.02 

12.83 

19.73 

22.74 

20.60 

18.8 

20.31 

24. 

17.37 

23.96 


156 
112 
120 
175 
106 
137 
124 
148 
124 
143 
144 
158 
138 
250 


2830 
1600* 
3600 
4500 
3080 
5431 
3500 
4027 
5438 
5097 
5000 
6175 
^21* 
10,0001 


18.14 

14.28 

30. 

25.71 

28.12 

39.64 

28. 

27.21 

43.85 

33.11 

34.62 

39.81 

24.06 

40. 


After 1844, all the land cultivated rn corn had been 
marled, — and all of the wheat, after 1845. 

Since 1848 (inclusive) when my six-field rotation was 
begun, one entire field has always been under broad- 
cast peas, of which all the vines, and most of the grain, 
were ploughed under as manure for wheat. 

* These crops very short, owing to remarkably bad 
seasons, 
t This by estimate, as the crop is not yet gathered. 



Then, if putting aside the progressive rates of 

S reduction as a measure of the improvement by 
raining, there is nothing to adduce for proof, but 
the former and present condition of the land as to 
moisture and dryness, intractability and cloddiness, 
or pulverization and now usual better tilth and 
ease of ploughing and tillage. The differences in 
these respects, and whether with or without the 
knowledge of the former and recent rates of pro- 
duction, to any observer well acquainted with the 
farm both in former and the present times, would 
be sufficient proofs of the benefit and profit of the 
latter drainage, and the comparative inefficiency 
of the first-used plan. But to strangers, and by 
writing, 1 cannot offer any positive or satisfactory 
evidence, other than the assertion that, in all of 
the above recited conditions, very great improve- 
ment has been produced by the two better methods 
of under-draining — by covered drains, and by still 



deeper and more operative open main ditches. All 
the ground of the two lower levels, (severally 
marked blue and green. Fig. I.) and some other 
also of the much higher and oozy ground, formerly 
was always much too wet for at least half the year, 
and yet, most of which, in long droughts, was ex- 
tremely dry and hard, and very difficult to plough, 
and when ploughed, was generally left in hard 
clods. Now, (with some small exceptions,) this 
land is as dry as any very flat and stiff land well can 
be; and where longest and best drained, the soil is 
easily and well pulverized by ploughing, and put 
in beautiful condition of tilth. It is true that in 
some limited spaces the draining has not yet been 
completely effectual. Further, even where most 
operative, more perfect drainage might be ob- 
tained by super-adding the English system of " fre- 
quent" or " thorough draining," to remove surface 
water — if that very costly improvement could be 



NEW PLAN FOR PLOUGHING FLAT LAND. 



11 



afforded on our lo\v--priced lands. But with these 
exceptions — and speaking according to common 
opinion qnd understanding in regard to land and 
draining — every observer of this farm would now 
pronounce that it is %i^eU drained nearly throughout. 
And further — a new observer, if enlirely unac- 
quainted with the former condition of the land, 
would probably suppose that the lowest land had 
always been generally as dry — and had needed, for 
perfect drainage, only the few open stream-ditches 
now visible. Even these, where completely shaped, 
have their sides so sloped and lowered, and their 
bottoms so narrow, and altogether they present so 
little impediment to passage, that the actual depth 
and capacity of the open ditches would be much un- 
der-rated. And if the great number and extent 
of the concealed under-drains were made known 
to such new observer, he could scarcely believe 
that there had ever existed any necessity for their 
construction. 

But successful and profitable as has been the 
latter drainage, taken altogether, I have to confess 
that half of my labors were so injudiciously and 
improperly applied, as to be (to that amount,) 
nearly throv/n away. If the proper labors could 
have been given in the proper order — and beginning 
with the best and most important means, instead 
of these being the latest employed — the actual ef- 
fects and benefits mit,ht have been obtained in half 
the time, as well as with half the cost of labor that 
has been incurred. Much of this loss was una- 
voidable, because of the want, at first, of the pro- 
perty or the control of other land, necessary for 
the proper plan of drainage, v/hich has latterly 
been adopted. But the greater errors and losses 
were owing to my own want of knowledge in the 
beginning, both of the true causes of the then ex- 
isting evils, and of the proper course and means 
for remedy, even if these means had been then 
available. 



A KEW FLAW FOR PLOUGHTIVG FLAT LAND, W 
AID OF DRAINAGE. 



BY EDMUND HUFFIN. 



On the borders of the Atlantic tide-water rivers, 
and for more extended spaces near the mouths of 
these rivers, there are many and large bodies of 
low-land and of surfaces nearly level, or but 
slightly undulating. All such lands, naturally, are 
more or less wet and require drainage for their 
good tillage and production. And whether drained 
effectively, or ever so imperfectly, such lands, 
xuider culture, usually require, and have, a num- 
ber of open ditches, to collect and carry off the 
streams, and the excess of rain and surface water. 



Note. — In this report of a partfcular drainage operation, 
it has been the design and effort of the writer to make it as 
concise ae could be, so as to exhibit, generally, the causes of 
■wetness, the means used for remedy, and the results produced. 
If any reader should desire more extended information on 
the general subject, either in reasoning as to causes, or instruc- 
tion and directions for the practical' labors of draining, and in 
various circumstances, such particular information may be 
found in two other of my previous writings, viz: the article 
" On Draining," in my published " Essays and Notes on Agri- 
culture" (1S55) and a report on the "Agricultural Features of 
Lower Virginia and North Carolina," first and recently pub- 
lished in De Bow's " Southern and Western Review," and since 
communicated, with additions, to the Virginia State Agricul- 
tural Society. 



In former publications, I have offered my views at 
length in regard to the proper modes of draining, 
and the subsequent tillage (in very wide beds,) of 
lands of this class — and therefore these important 
and main branches of the general subject need not 
be here discussed. Nor will either be men- 
tioned, except incidentally, and as necessary for 
explanation of the later and auxiliary improvement 
by the manner of ploughing, which I design now to 
set forth, and to recommend. 

Whether any field, or farm, of the flat surface 
in view, is drained properly or improperly, there 
will be many ditches running in different direc- 
tions Where the lands are most level (as in large 
spacesof interior lands of lower Virginia and North 
and South Carolina,) the ditches may be placed al- 
most anywhere, and in any direction, to operate as 
designed. But more generally, and especially 
on the borders of rivers, the surface has so many 
and frequent though it may be but slight undula- 
tions, that the open drains, for rain or surface 
water, must be placed precisely in the loAvest de- 
pressions, and directed in the courses of these de- 
pressions. As these latter circumstances are the 
mo>,t usual, and are the most difficult, I will sup- 
pose them to exist, when making the following re- 
marks. Then, in a field of this kind, we may 
suppose there to be many slight and mostly narrow 
depressions, running in various directions, betAveen 
the somewhat higher and very much broader in- 
tervals of dryer land, but still not dry enough for 
draining to be dispensed with. Through all these 
depressions, (even where there are no springs to 
collect, or permanent stream to vent,) there pass- 
open rain-ditches, which are impassable by ploughs 
and team's — or smaller grips, which perhaps are 
ploughed across, and therefore rcquirecleaning out, 
and almost renewing, after every ploughing of the 
ground. In either case, these open surface-drains, 
of whatever sizes, are great sources of trouble, 
and great impediments to tillage. 

Further — as the depressions are usually but very 
little below the level of the near adjacent ground — 
and the line of the ditch is not at all lower than 
its borders — it follows that the earth thrown out 
in the first digging must raise the margins — perhaps 
to be raised still higher by every subsequent clean- 
ing out of the ditch. These banks, even if spread 
as far as to be thrown by shovels, still raise the 
margins — and even if but two or three inches 
higher than the ground farther off from the ditch, 
this slight elevation seriously impairs the proper 
draining effect of the ditch. Further — when the 
ploughs have to stop and turn at the sides of the 
ditches, they always bring there and leave some 
earth on the margins — and this serves still more 
to counteract drainage, and to cause future labor. 
Such would be existing evils, even when great 
and unusual care is used to remove the first-raised 
banks of ditches, and to prevent subsequent accu- 
mulations of earth there. But it is much more 
common, and far worse, to let the ditch banks 
remain to raise the margins — and further, to add 
to them by the subsequent ploughing, (if flush,) 
being so ordered that every furrow-slice, cut near 
to the ditch, is turned towards its banks. 

Within the last two years, I have introduced a 
new manner of flush ploughing, which serves from 
the beginning to moderate the evils in question; 
and which, in the course of time, will have the 
best effects, in adding to the draining operation 
and effects of open ditches, of all kinds and sizes, 
and also in lessening the future labors for main- 
taining their proper operation. 



12 



NEW PLAN FOR PLOUGHING FLAT LAND. 



Fence — or border of another field 




NEW PLAN FOR PLOUGHING FLAT LAND. 



13 



The annexed figure, or diagram, will enable me to 
explain more clearly the manner of ploughing. 
Tlie whole space represents a field, or part of a 
field, which is divided by two long depressions into 
three irregulai'ly shaped "cuts" or divisions, D, 
E and F. Along the middle of the larger interior 
depression, there had been kept open a narrow 
rain ditch, of the usual shape, b, b, say 2 feet deep, 
and 3 wide, (and which depth was necessary,) at 
which the plough and teams had to turn, because 
of the impassable obstruction. The other and 
smaller depression had a grip (a, a) say 15 inches 
wide and lU deep, across which the ploughs passed, 
and which was filled and required cleaning out 
after every ploughing. A permanent stream ditch, 
c, d, is one of tiie Ijoundaries, bordered on both 
sides by tlie lowest ground of the field. A rain- 
ditch y, b, d, makes another boundary, a farm road 
another, and on the fourth side is a fence along 
side of the adjacent farm — or another field of the 
same farm. 

It is desired to plough each of these cuts in such 
manner as to throw every furrow-slice from the 
outsides, and towards the centre. It is supposed 
that the ditch 6, b, and the grip a, a, are in tlie best 
locations — that is, combining as much as possible 
the requisites of having the sliortest courses that 
can be obtained in the lowest ground. If any de- 
fect of location exists, it should be corrected, and 
the ditch or grip be made correct in position. 
This being done, the next thing is to mark off the 
ground for ploughing. The field is supposed to 
have been left, after the last previous tillage, 
either in broad beds (25 feet or more,) high enough 
and well-sloped — or in low and narrow beds, pre- 
viously designed to be ploughed flush, and to be 
again bedded in the progress of tilling the corn- 
crop. The farmer, or a careful and intelligent 
man, and a boy, having each one end of a strong 
but light cord (of strong iiemp twine) about 75 
feet long, will direct the ploughman where to 
mark. Taking one cut, (as D,) the man walks 
along the outside lines, or as close thereto as the 
near horse of a plough-team can easily and safely 
walk. The boy carries the string stretched, and 
keeps it at right-angles to the outside line on 
which the man walks. The ploughman, with a 
small one-horse plough, or coulter, follows the 
track of the boy, and barely scratches the ground, 
80 as to make a perceptible mark. If a larger 
furrow were opened, it would be an inconvenience 
to the main work. Thus, if beginning on the cut 
D, the first line laid oft', will be h, h, h, h, h, pa- 
rallel to, and the length of the line distant from 
the surrounding boundary line of the cut D. At 
each angle, the plough should mark a little beyond 
its supposed full distance, and then be lifted back 
to the proper place indicated by the length of the 
string, when stretched from the next side. The 
intersection of the furrows will mark the exact 
place for the angle. Thus each successive mark- 
ing will be made, parallel to and equidistant from 
the preceding, until the work reaches nearly to 
the centre. If the last circuit made (i, i, i,) does 
not permit the line to be again used at its full 
length, it should be shortened, to any less length 
(say 30 or 40 feet), and another and the smallest 
interior space (D) marked around.* Next, the 
plough should mark a line from each of the angles 



* The engraver of the diagram has made it very incorrect 
^in not having the marked lines parallel to each other through- 
out each of the several cuts — as is described above, and as 
the drawing also required,— E. R. 



I of the inner space through the corresponding an- 
gles to the outer boundary, as the dotted lines are 
I placed. The cut is now ready to be ploughed. 
I The plough is first lun around the small interior 
i space (D) turning the slices towards the centre, 
! And as the furrows in the beginning are very short, 
I it will be best (to save much trouble in the fre- 
i quent turning,) not then to use a team of more 
I than two horses. But as soon as the furrov/s are of 
j sufficient length, this temporary expedient should 
i be laid aside, and the larger plough and team suit- 
j able for the land be used. After a few furrows 
: are cut around the inside marked circuit, so as 
I to well designate the outline, then the small inte- 
I rior space D should be ploughed outward; or any 
I way will serve. The plough then resumes its pre- 
I vious place and course, and continues to go around, 
I and to turn the slices inward. The ploughman, 
! in running every furrow should let the plough cut 
j straight and fully up to and turn at the dotted 
I lines. This will keep the work right at the an- 
j gles, in which places it would otherwise be sure 
] to get out of order. But with this care, and with 
cutting all the furrows as straight and as equal as 
I every ploughman should do, the ploughing will go 
on as correctly as in any other mode — and with 
less loss of labor, and with more thorough execu- 
tion. More thorough, because there will be no 
unbroken strips left, and only covered, as in all 
ridge or bed-ploughing — and no unnecessary and 
barren water-furrows made, where of no use, as 
in the closing of "lands" in all flush-ploughing. 
Further — as the ploughman approaches within a 
few yards of the next marked line, and still more 
when nearer, he has in that a test and gauge of 
his previous work, and a sure guide for the next 
succeeding. Wherever his last cut furrows obvi- 
ously vary from being parallel to, or of equal dis- 
tance from, the surrounding and nearest mark, he 
has but to make the width of his subsequently cut 
slices to suit and remedy the defects. The dif- 
ferences of texture or condition of the soil, or of 
the C(jver of vegetable matter, will cause the 
plough to gain more in width in some places than 
in others, if no care is used to prevent. But with 
the guidance of the parallel lines marking the 
widths, and the cross-lines indicating the proper 
points for the angles of the furrows, it will be easy 
for the ploughman, (or for any number of ploughs 
following each other on the same cut,) to make 
even and equal work, and to close at the outside 
lines, with but little loss of labor in broken fur- 
rows. It is obvious that the outside boundaries, 
whether made by ditches, fences, or growing crops 
on adjacent fields, can be ploughed more nearly to, 
in this mode, than in any other whatever. 

The ploughs, and the depth of ploughing, may 
be of any description suitable to the soil. But, 
for the convenience of reference to eff'ects, I will 
suppose the operation and conditions to be like 
my own. In that, the ploughs for breaking up, 
whether in winter, to prepare rough or grass land 
for corn, or in summer, to prepare clover (or weed) 
land for wheat, are drawn by four mules, and usu- 
ally in easy ground, cut and turn slices 7 to 8 
inches deep, and 12 to 14 inches wide. 

First, let us consider the operation of the plough- 
ing, in reference to its great and usually sole ob- 
ject, that of thoroughly breaking, loosening, sub- 
verting, and giving tilth to the soil, for sufficient 
depth, and also burying and covering the vegetable 
matter which stood on the previous surface. 

The land is supposed (like mine) to have been 
left (at the previous tillage,) in straight and well- 



14 



NEW PLAN FOR PLOUGHING PLAT LAND. 



shaped broad and high beds — say ^5 or 21h feet 
wide, and about 16 inches of difference of perpen- 
dicular height between the centre or crown of the 
bed, and the bottom of the alley. The new plough- 
ing will necessarily cross t!ie former ploughing, 
and the beds and alleys, in every variety of direc- 
tion. In part, the furrows will run in precisely 
the same direction with the beds and alleys — in 
part, they will cross at right-angles — and else- 
where, they will cross diagonally, at angles of 
every different size. Before trial, I feared great 
ditFiculties, and especially in ploughing across the 
beds at right-angles. But, in practice, the ditR- 
culties were much less than expected — and, on the 
whole, less than belong to any other and usual 
mode of ploughing. When ploughing directly 
across the beds, it is true that the new furrow is 
of very unequal depths — perhaps 10 inches at the 
middle of the bed, and barely 1 to 2 inches when 
crossing the bottoni of the deep and narrow alley. 
But these very diflerent depths, if something more 
laborious to the team, are more suitable to the re- 
quirements of the soil in the extremes of thick- 
ness, made artificially by the former bedding. The 
deeper ploughing under the crown of the bed is 
still the more beneficial, because that place had 
been broken but imperfectly, or not at all, by the 
previous ploughings, which raised the bed, and 
lapped the soil, without breaking it below, at the 
crowns of the beds. In the alleys, where the new 
ploughing barelyscraped, the sub-soil had generally 
been previously reached, in deepening the alleys; 
and no greater depth of ploughing was needed, 
inasmuch as the beds are to remain as they were 
before. When the new ploughing is immediately 
across the old beds (or at right-angles,) the beds 
necessarily there retaiu precisely their former po- 
sition, and, immediately after the new ploughing, 
appear even higher than before. In the alleys 
there was so little cutting, and so little of other 
earth thrown in, that there will be but little earth 
to clean out, to leave these beds in better shape, as 
well as in better tilth, than after any former 
ploughing. 

The advantages of more easily and throughly 
breaking the ground, and the disadvantages of 
throwing more of the ploughed soil into the alleys, 
both increase as the direction is changed to be 
diagonal — and from diagonal to coinciding with 
the direction of the alleys. There could be no- 
thing of this disadvantage (worth consideration) of 
throwing more earth into the alleys, if every fur- 
row was of equal depth, whether in the highest or 
lowest places — or at the crowns of the beds and in 
the alleys. In that case, wherever any part of a fur- 
row was opened, it would be filled by the next cut 
furrow-slice, of precisely equal size. But in prac- 
tice, the furrow-slices are not of equal thickness 
whether cut at the crown, or the side of the bed, 
and in the alley, ( — and they ought not to be 
equal — ) and therefore the new flush ploughing 
does operate slightly, to change for the worse, the 
previous relative positions of the beds. But this 
change, and damage, is less than is usually made by 
the careless ploughing of beds, in the same direc- 
tion, and whether with the design of raising and 
preserving the same beds, or cleaving and reversing 
them. After the flush ploughing described, and in 
every direction, the former alleys are plainly to be 
distinguished. And, at a proper time and condition 
of the land, the running of a two-horse plough up 
and down in each alley, will sweep out cleanly all 
the loosened earth that would absorb rain-water, 
and obstruct its discharge, and leave each bed and 



alley in the best designed shape and condition for 
surface drainage. But this opening of the alleys 
cannot be well done immediately after the plough- 
ing of each cut, -nor until rain shall have fallen, 
and dried off, so that the loose and turfy earth has 
been somewhat consolidated. In the interval be- 
tween the ploughing and the subsequent opening of 
the former alleys, t!ie only evil and danger of the 
plan may occur, in the fall of so much rain that it 
will be long befjre the then water-glutted alleys 
will be fit for the plough; and when, consequently, 
great damage will be caused by this long water- 
soak. ng of the earth in the alleys. Every care 
should be used to prevent this evil. 

This manner of ploughing should be used cer- 
tainly for every winter ploughing, (to prepare for 
corn,) and it may be for any other time when the 
farmer is sure of being able to complete any one 
cut, before being stopped in any part of it by hard- 
ness of the soil caused by drought. On this ac- 
count, it may be too hazardous to resort to this 
kind of ploughing, in summer, when " fallowing," 
or ploughing grass land to prepare for wheat. 
Except for this danger of being stopped by drought, 
summer would be the best time for ihe operation, 
as there would be then no danger of damage to 
the land from the occurrence of saturating and 
injurious rains, while the alleys were still partially 
choked by loose earth. 

So much in regard to the effects of this mode of 
ploughing or tilth, and as affecting the preserva- 
tion of the former bedding. Next I will describe 
the much more important effects and the main ob- 
ject, in aid of surface-drainage. While the plough- 
ing will be as cheap, and more effectual, as plough- 
ing merely, it will at the same time, and with no 
more expense, greatly aid the other and proper 
labors for the most effectual surface drainage. 

In general terms, the effect of every such plough- 
ing is to remove the entire surface-soil, to the 
depth ploughed, from the out-side towards the 
centre, as much as the width of the furrow-slices. 
The amount of earth thus removed is enormous. 
It is dug and removed by the cheapest possible im- 
plement and process — and even this labor costs 
nothing for draining, in as much as it is required 
for and compensated as necessary tillage. As each 
furrow-slice removed is replaced by another, there 
will be but very little (and unappreciable) effect 
in altering the general level of each cut. But the 
effect will be considerable, at the outside furrow, 
even at the first operation — and still more and 
more at every subsequent ploughing, so long as it 
ma}^ be expedient to continue the same manner of 
ploughing, for furthering the same object. 

If ttie f^urrows were cut equal, with perfect ac- 
curacy, the results might be exhibited to the eye 
and understanding with geometrical exactness and 
force. And this can still be done, with due allow- 
ances for the imperfection of practical operations 
compared to theory. But to some extent, practice 
in this case may even surpass the theory stated. 
For, while the latter supposes equal dimensions of 
furrow-slices throughout each cut, in practice, it 
will be quite easy to cut the i'ew outside slices of 
greater than the general depth, and so the more to 
lower the outside margin. There is another thing 
which will be here mentioned, which should be 
understood hereafter in every named operation. 
When a boundary line of a cut is aditch (of the usual 
steep and irregular sides,) the team cannot safely 
walk so close to the edge as to plough and turn 
away all the margin earth. There must be from 
3 feet to 1 foot left everywhere uncut (according 



DRAINAGE 



15 



to the depth or irregularity of tlic side of the ditch) 
which earth will require to be dug and pulled 
back by hand-hoes, which thus perform what 
the plough cannot do at first. This hoe-'\?'ork-, 
being always understood, and always required in 
aid of any manner of ploughing, (and much less in 
this than any other,) need not again be referred 
to. And the cutting to the edge of the ditch will 
be supposed to be effected by the plougii, though 
always (for the earlier work) requiring to be 
finished by hand-hoes. 

Then the effect of the first ploughing on this 
plan, by a four-hors'; plough, will be to remove 
the whole surface-soil, for 8 inches deep, a fur- 
row's width, (say 14 inches) in the directions from 
the outside to the centre. And the outside fur- 
row-slice, or earth of the dimensions stated, will 
be removed entirely and permanently from its for- 
mer position — and its equivalent quantity distri- 
buted over the interior or central space of the cut. 
This operation will lower the margin of the boun- 
dary ditches or grips, 8 inches deep, and for a 
width of ]4 inches. When the like ploughing has 
been done on the adjoining cut, (E) and to the 
other side of the grip a, a, the furrow-slices would 
thus be removed from both sides of the old'grip, 
and nearly as deep. A furrow then run along its 
course, and back in the same track, would deepen 
the grip, partly fill and slope tlie borders, and thus, 
•while the grip would be made deeper and better 
for drainage, it could be less an impediment to 
tillage, and less liable to be entirely filled with 
earth by being plouglied across. When the like 
ploughing is subsequently repeated, another fur- 
row-slice is removed from the outsides of the 
cuts, and so much a more gentle slope is given to 
the grip. Then, and thereafter, the plough will 
be sufficient to clean the loose earth out of the 
grips. If more depth is desired, it can be given in 
closing the ordinary ploughing. And even if made 
of double the former depth, so wide and so gentle 
will be the slope of the margins, that the grip will 
present no serious obstacle to the crossing of 
ploughs, in any direction, of carts, or even of the 
passage, at work, of reaping machines. 

The same operation of lowering and sloping off 
the margins of the deeper rain-ditches would be 
proceeding in the like manner, and would only re- 
quire longer time to approach or perhaps reach, 
the same good results. Even the deepest stream 
ditches would be much improved, in their surface- 
drainage operation ; and their obstruction to tillage 
and to other team labors be greatly diminished. 



AGRICULTURAL FEATURES OF LOWER VIRGIIVIA 
AND IVORTH CAROLIM. 



BY EDMUND RUFFIM. 



I. General remarks. The public but slightly in- 
formed of the region in question, and especially with 
lower Morth Carolina in general. 

The eastern portion of North Carolina presents 
a large region, of remarkable features, topogra- 
phical, geological, and agricultural. The enclosed 
broad sounds, and other waters, are not less in- 
teresting, for their recent and great changes; and, 



besides, they have been the scenes of some of the 
minor but romantic and interesting incidents of 
history. Into iioanoke Sound, by the then broad 
open passage from the ocean, which is now dyked 
across by dry land, Sir Walter Raleigh's ships en- 
tered, and on Roanoke Island they planted the 
first, though but ineffectual, settlement of British 
colonists in America. In another portion of these 
now almost land-locked Avaters, there occurred 
many of the acts of Teache, or Blackboard, the 
celebrated pirate, and finally, the naval engage- 
ment in which he was defeated and killed. It the 
lands of this region were even worthless, for agri- 
cultural and economical uses, they would deserve 
and rev/ard the investigations of the exploring and 
laborious geologist; and if destitute of all scien- 
tific interest, they would deserve far more atten- 
tion than ever has been bestowed on them, for their 
peculiarities of agricultural character, and capa- 
bilities for high improvement and profit. Yet, 
there is no equal space of territory in all the 
States of the American Union that has been so 
little visited or seen by other than its residents, 
and of which the character and values have been 
so little noticed or known. It is rare that any 
stranger enters this terra incognita. And even of 
the residents of other parts of North Carolina, of 
the class inclined and accustomed to travel for 
business or pleasure, where one such has seen this 
portion of their own country, one hundred have 
visited the remote States of the North or South, 
or West. 

The region here referred to, except as to the 
line of sea-shore, has no exact geographical limits — 
or at least there is no present information upon 
which to designate the extreme southern and the 
whole western boundary. I would include all of 
the low-lying and very level land, which is the 
universal character of all the coast lands, of North 
Carolina, and for a breadth of two to five or more 
counties westward. As soon as the surface begins 
to lose its apparent almost perfect level, and to 
swell perceptibly into rising slopes, there should 
be placed the western or upper boundar)' of the 
low and flat region which is here referred to gene- 
rally. The same character of country extends 
northward to the Chesapeake bay and its lowest 
western affluent rivers; and how far south of North 
Carolina I am not sufficiently informed to say. In 
addition to the one universal feature of low and 
level surface of the highest and firmest lands, it is 
much intersected by narrow strips of lower and 
swampy but also firm ground; and, also, immense 
spaces are occupied by large and boggy swamps, 
which were"" impassable, and almost impenetrable 
by man, until his improvements and labors had pro- 
duced artificial passage-ways. 

This great region ati'ords sundry somewhat con- 
nected, but yet substantive subjects, for separate 
treatment. Such are the now cultivated land and 
its agricultural condition, and the improvements 
most needed — description of the great swamps, and 
such agricultural improvements as have been there 
made — the geological origin and structure of the 
different great classes of lands — notices of the 
ocean sand-beach, and the enclosed sounds, and 
other navigable waters, and the changes that have 
occurred in both, &c. Some others, or perhaps 
all, of these several divisions of the whole great 
subject may be hereafter discussed. For the pre- 
sent, I will confine myself to sketch the agricul- 
tural features, condition, wants, (and errors of 
culture,) and capabilities of the particular and 
peculiar agricultural region which lies between 



16 



DRAINAGE 



the Chesapeake bay and Hampton roads and Nan- 
semond river, on the north, the ocean on the east, 
and Albemarle sound on tlie south. On the west, 
the outline would include all the Dismal Swamp. 
But all the gryat space, and the circui^stances of 
that swamp proper, will be passed over now, to be 
resumed and considered in another and substantive 
article. The further extension of the western 
boundary would include the lower Chowan, and 
the basin of the lower Roanoke. The area desig- 
nated includes some of the oldest agricultural set- 
tlements and oldest towns, and'- (on the Roanoke 
especially) some of the richest lands on our Atlan- 
tic border. It is also intersected by sundry lines 
of public travel, and some of which (the land and 
water steam-lines to Norfolk) have long been used 
by numerous passengers. Still, all these circiim- 
stances do not make this particular agricultural 
district an exception to the general rule or condi- 
tion of all the great low-land region, of being un- 
seen, unknown, and little appreciated by strangers. 
Of the many thousands of travellers who visit, or 
pass through, Norfolk or Portsmouth, on the great 
routes, scarcely one ever treads the soil, except in 
the towns — or ever sees any of the lands of the 
country, except in the rapidly changing glimpses 
afforded from a steam-car, or the more distant and 
uncertain views from a steam-vessel. Princess 
Anne county, which reaches within three miles of 
Norfolk, and Norfolk county, lie wholly in the 
designated section; and these counties, out of the 
towns, are as little known to the residents of ail 
other parts of Virginia, as any counties west of 
the Alleghany mountains. Yet, within the heart 
of one of these counties, and within a few miles 
of the other, are the important towns of Norfolk 
and Portsmouth, and the noblest harbor, and one 
of the most important Government dock-yards and 
naval stations, of the United States. And the 
country has been as little appreciated as it was 
little known; and even by its residents, until re- 
cently, and by those v/ho knew it best, as well as 
by strangers, who had only heard it spoken of and 
described in the most contemptuous epithets. And, 
though recent improvements of prices of lands, 
and in fewer and more remarkable cases, of pro- 
ducts and profits, and still more, and longer, in 
some of the North Carolina counties, indicate 
much actual improvement and higher apprecia- 
tion, still very few, even of the most intelligent 
proprietors, are yet fully aware of the true and 
great wants of their lands, and their great capa- 
bility for improvement. Proper drainage alone 
would double the productive value and the profits 
of the whole great area of what is usually con- 
sidered the now dry land, and of the firm and par- 
tially drained swamps. In addition to the pecu- 
liar grounds for agricultural improvement and 
profit in the land itself, no known region possesses 
such great facilities for navigation, and for choice 
of markets. And, in every respect, no where is 
there a region where agricultural improvement is 
more needed, and is more available, and offers 
more prospective profit; and no where have the 
great advantages offered by Nature been more 
neglected, or seem to be less known. 

For the present, my remarks on this region will 
be applied especially and particularly to the por- 
tion lying east of Perquimons river. My personal 
observations did not, at first, extend farther west; 
and much of whatever may be here said of the 
country extending beyond Perquimons, and inclu- 
ding the lower Roanoke valley, will be on report 
deemed entirely reliable. 



II. Peculiar characters of the low-lands, in surface 
and qualities of soil. 

The most striking feature of this firm low-land 
region, is its very low and level surface. Large 
bodies, say of 1,000 acres or more together, are 
more uniformly level than any as large spaces of 
alluvial, or other bottom land, on any of the great 
rivers of Virginia Such bottom-land as borders 
the Pamunkey river, for example, might be called 
undulating, compared to the general greater flat- 
ness of the whole great region under considera- 
tion. The numerous smaller swamps, interspersed, 
(wliicli receive and conduct off the overflowing 
surface water,) are, usually, not much lower than 
the adjacent highest ground. So far as the eye 
would indicate, changes of level of even so much 
as a foot of difterence, can rarely be perceived, 
except in the swamps and depressions which con- 
vey the rivers and smaller streams, or temporary 
rain-floods. But changes of level which are barely 
perceptible to the eye, are usually made abun- 
dantly distinct by the gathering of water on the 
sliglitly depressed surfaces, which serve to make 
the numerous swamps of firm soil. A stranger, if 
travelling tlirough the country in any and different 
directions, might suppose that the surface of the 
land was nowhere higher than ten feet above ordi- 
nary high tide, or the usual height of the naviga- 
ble and level waters; but the real heights are 
greater than would thus appear to the eye. In the 
interior of Princess Anne county, at Level Green, 
(the farm of Edward H. Herbert, Esq.,) where 
the surface seems to the eye as low as any — the 
elevation, as determined by levelling instruments, 
is about twenty-one feet above tide. Still, the va- 
riations of surface-level are so gradual, (except as 
to the beds of water-courses,) that it is often diffi- 
cult, if not impossible, to reach any outlet for 
drainage of a few feet of fall, without conveying 
the water by a ditcli of some miles in length, and 
through as high, or higher ground. This feature 
of the surface presents the greatest impediment to 
the drainage of the interior lands, and especially 
upon the ordinary method of mere surface drain- 
age, by open and shallow ditches. 

But with all the slight undulations of surface 
levels, there is nothing to obstruct the view, except 
the standing crops and fences on the farms, and 
the trees on swamp or other forest lands. Except 
for these obstructions, any object of the size of a 
man, or horse, could be seen over miles of inter- 
vening space and distance. In all the great area 
now under consideration, there is not (native to 
the locality) a stone, or even a small pebble; and, 
in few cases, but a little of small gi'avel.* The 
soils vary, in different places, between open and 
light sandy loam, and very close compact gray 
clay (so-called;) or, perhaps, more correctly, ex- 
tremely close and compact soil and subsoil, com- 
posed mostly of the minutest particles of sand, and 
which, therefore, are stiffer, closer, and more in- 
tractable under cultivation than the finest or true 
clay elsewhere. Of such red and yellow clays as 
make many of the best soils and subsoils of the 
upper country, (above the falls, or among the 
mountains,) none are seen here. 



* There may be, and probably are exceptions, as higher in 
the tide-water region, in some coarse and imperfect sand- 
stone, recently formed, by ferruginous spring-water filtrating 
through coarse sand, and, in the course of time, cementing 
with a deposit of iron the before separate and loose grains 
of sand. There are many such recent formations of this 
stone. 



DRAINAGE 



17 



III. Peculiar characters of the rivers, and the many 
Jit for navigation. 

The water-'courses are numerous, and many of 
them are deep enough to be navigated by sea-ves- 
sels. In some of the smaller rivers, in parts too 
narrow and crooked for the ordinary small vessels 
to turn about or to pass each other when meeting, 
there is enough depth of water to float a ship. A 
glance at this section on a large map of North 
Carolina will show the great number and close 
neighborhood of these rivers which flow, nearly 
parallel to each other, into the northern side of 
Albemarle Sound. The lower parts of these rivers, 
where of widths, severally, from one to five miles, 
are more properly estuaries or large creeks, (in 
the proper sense of that word, and not as usually 
misapplied,) kept full by the refluent water of Al- 
bemarle Sound — ^just as they would be, and to 
nearly equal height, if there was no other supply 
of water from head-springs or rain-floods. But 
even as ascending these rivers, and after they are 
contracted to very narrow widths, and, as appear- 
ing on the map, the upper channels might be 
inferred to be merely shallow and insignificant 
streams, they are, in fact, deep, though narrow 
rivers, of level and slow-moving water, and con- 
tinuing deep almost to their visible head-sources; 
and otf'er good facilities for navigation to such ex- 
tent, in number and in length of rivers and their 
sundry branches, that one-half of them are super- 
fluous, and, therefore, are not put to use. If any 
obstructions exist, they are made merely by trees 
fallen across, and are easily removed. The whole 
country, and especially from Perquimons county 
to Currituck Sound, is pervaded by broad and deep 
estuaries near to the sound; and their head-waters, 
extending near or into the Dismal Swamp, make, 
with their many branches, a net-work of natural 
still-water canals, narrow and crooked, indeed, 
but as deep, as smooth, and as sluggish as artificial 
canals, and, free from the changes of levels and 
the obstruction of lock-gates, which accompany 
the benefits of canal navigation. Most of these 
rivers receive their head waters from the Dismal 
Swamp or other swamps. The water of all is 
black as seen in the rivers, and the color of brandy 
or Madeira wine as seen in a glass, being tiius 
deeply colored, as are all the swamp waters, by 
the vegetable extractive matters in and on the 
boggy swamp soils. This discoloration is not en- 
tirely lost in the salt tide-water of Elizabeth river, 
at Norfolk, nor in Currituck Sound; where nine 
miles wide, below the former (and now closed) 
Currituck inlet, which, not many years ago ad- 
mitted deep sea-vessels. 

In travelling along the public road from Eliza- 
beth City, North Carolina, to Currituck Court- 
House, within the distance of seven miles, we 
passed four navigable water-courses, including the 
Pasquotank and two of its brandies. Three of 
these had draw-bridges for the passage of masted 
sea-vessels. The fourth stream had no draw- 
bridge, because it was not needed in such close 
vicinity to others; and, also, becaus<', though this 
branch had abundant depth and an open channel 
for sea-vessels, it was so narrow and crooked that 
the banks and trees standing on the borders would 
entirely obstruct the masts and yards. Such great 
and numerous natural facilities for navigation, as 
in the many rivers of this region, are unequalled; 
and they are exceedeil by the aid of art, only in 
the canal navigation of the Dutch Netherlands. 

IV. General want of drainage and of proper views 
on the subject. 

C 



Level as is the general surface, and slight the 
variations of height, m adjacent spaces of all the 
peninsula between the waters of the Chesapeake 
and Albemarle, still there are frequent slight 
changes; and these, more than great changes else- 
where, are marked by consequent differences of 
character. Every farm of a few hundred acres 
has some of its surface of swamp, and usually un- 
drained. What is called high or dry land is, in- 
deed, the highest and dryest, but mostly still and 
always suffering more or less for want of sufficient 
drainage. The parts which may be only from 
two to three feet lower than the neighboring 
highest surfaces, are, because of the depression 
only, swamps of wet though firm ground. These 
swamps are very generally of firm soil, and the 
boggy swamps are of entirely different materials 
and formation. In all this flat country there are 
very few springs showing at the surface, and but 
rarely any springy or oozy places. The water 
and the wetness of the numerous smaller swamps 
are due entirely to rains. On the higher spots, or 
larger high spaces, the early settlements were all 
made, and tillage has there been continued, with 
but little respite, to this time. The intermixed 
lower lands, or smaller swamps, were deemed 
worthless, and their culture was rarely attempted 
until within recent times. Yet, even with the 
imperfect superficial drainage which only is in 
use, these swamp lands are found to be best, and 
of fertility rarely exceeded anywhere. Some of 
this firm swamp, in Perquimons, of which Mr. J. 
T. Granberry's estate in part is composed, and 
which but lately has been drained or brought un- 
der cultivation, he bought lately, at |55 the acre, 
unreclaimed. A highly intelligent neighbor told 
me that he remembered when the same land could 
not have been sold for 75 cents the acre, and was 
deemed of no value whatever for tillage. 

The soils and also the subsoils vary in texture 
from moderately light to extremely stiff, close, 
impervious (now) to the descent of water, and re- 
markably intractable under tillage, and almost 
always either too wet or too dry for good plough- 
ing, even under good farmers. Under the worst 
cultivators such soils are sometimes mud or mire, 
and sometimes of clods almost as hard as brick- 
bats. These soils are general or common in Per- 
quimons only. Yet, on good farms, of this very 
difficult soil, there are seen the best (and excel- 
lent) crops of wheat, and other best crops, of all 
the counties on the sound. The greatest drainage 
labors and most of the best farmers and best cul- 
tivation are also in that county; yet even there, 
and though many of the ditches are of great size 
and the drainage labors are remarkable for their 
extent and cost, still, almost every where, the 
tilled land is but partially and insufficiently drained. 
On much the larger portion, perhaps nineteen- 
twentieths of all the cultivated and even highest 
surface of the whole region, the drainage is much 
worse and still more insufficient. 

V. The true principle of drainage for this region 
and the geological facts on ichich the principle is 
founded. 

The great error of the method of drainage, 
general in all this region, is that the drains or 
ditches are designed, and only operate, to draw 
the superfluous and, therefore, injurious rain-water 
from and over the surface. The principle 1 would 
propose to substitute, is to draw off (and keep 
drawn off) the water which is in excess, some feet 
below and up to the surface, and by thus removing 
the before constant saturation or glut of the lower 



18 



DRAINAGE . 



earth, to permit tlie excess of falling rain to sink 
into the lower earth, and thence pass off below 
instead of being kept on and near the surface, as 
now and heretofore, until it either can flow ofi' on 
the surface to ditches, or is evaporated. Both the 
existing error and the evil eliects and also the 
benefit of the proposed substituted plan are de- 
pendent; on the geological structure of the land, 
and especially of its inferior beds. But, in ad- 
vance of all description and reasoning as to the 
causes of the supposed existing phenomena and of 
tracmg the effects in reference to draining, I will 
simply assume the truih of the great and all-im- 
portant fact on which my plan and reasoning are 
founded. 'J'his fact is, that the whole of this low 
and flat country, at some few feet below the sur- 
face, (within the extreme limits of from 2 to 8 
feet, and more generally from 3 to 5 feet,) has 
underlying it a bed of pure sand which, at least in 
all wet seasons, is glutted with water from its 
bottom to its top. This fact is unquestionable, 
and may be tested easily by every proprietor. 
But I have to infer, from the geological structure 
of the region and on reasoning, which would re- 
quire too much space to state here, the further 
fact, that this underlying bed of water-glutted 
saud is nearly horizontal, but, like the overlying 
earth and its surface, has a gentle and general 
dip or declination toward the seacoast, or in a 
southeasterly direction. 

As to the general presence of the sand-bed, it 
is proved by every well that is dug, and not only 
here, but in much higher localities of the tide- 
water region. In the higher country, and at 
higher levels of surface, the sand-bed lies deeper; 
and also, there, generally, its upper part is dry, 
(or without water,) though, by digging deeper, the 
lower sand, there also, is always found filled (but 
not surcharged) with water. A like bed of sand 
underlies most, or all of the bottom or low land, 
along the rivers in the higher tide-water counties 
in Virginia; and, as I infer from but limited per- 
sonal observations, such sand, with much more 
regularity of position and operation, underlies the 
whole superficial lajers of the great low-land re- 
gion here under consideration. But in these low- 
lands, the sand-bed is naturally always glutted 
with water, which water is a source supplying 
moisture to the overlying earth, and also, by be- 
ing already as full of water as it can be; the 
glutted sand-bed is an effectual barrier to the de- 
scent of more rain-water from the surface of the 
land. This sand-bed is, therefore, the great cause 
of the existing wetness of the upper beds, and 
surface soil, and the reason why the usual surface- 
draining is so imperfect in operation. And the 
same feature offers the manner and means for 
effectual drainage. 

Of course, very few particular facts, and in 
narrow spaces, have been learned from my own 
personal observations in this low country. But I 
had previously discovered the underlying and also 
water glutted sand-bed, (concealed from all pre- 
vious knowledge, as a general fact,) below the 
broad bottom lands of my own farm on the Pamun- 
key river, (in Hanover county, Virginia,) and had 
long studied its effects; and in reference to it, 
had devised, and conducted successfully, extensive 
draining labors. At first, I had supposed this re- 
markable and then newly discovered feature to be 
peculiar to the particular locality of my own 
farm; but in the progress of my draining opera- 
tions, and the necessary study of the whole sub- 
ject, and the true principles of drainage, I came 



to infer, that the same feature, of an underlying 
sand-bed, belongs to the whole of the lands of our 
great tide-water region, and that this sand-bed, 
where dipping lowest, and glutted with water, 
was the great cause of the evil of excessive wet- 
ness of the lowlying soils above. I felt so confi- 
dent of the correctness of my deductions, that it 
induced me at the first time of leisure, to visit the 
region in question, to seek and to find the facts to 
confirm and to sustain my theoretical views. And 
before my first visit to this country, I offered to a 
friend, residmg therein, advice for the proper 
drainage of his farm (by seeking for and tapping 
the glutted sand-bed,) which he acted upon to some 
extent, and found therein the precise effects and 
all the benefit that could have been expected from 
his limited first operations on this new principle. 

To obtain numerous evidences of the very gene- 
ral existence and position of the sand-bed, it was 
not required for me to dig or bore into the under 
beds, or even to see the surface of every locality. 
Every farm house is supplied with water by one 
or more wells, and these numerous, previously, 
and long used wells, go far to supply all the facts 
required. Whether the sand-bed exists, and near 
enough to the surface to effect its natural drainage, 
may be learned usually from inquiries about the 
wells, their depths, and the causes of the varying 
quantities of their supply of water. From even 
but a few such examples, and applying thereto my 
general views derived from practice and experience 
of draining in far distant localities, I was confirmed 
in the general opinions previously formed, in ad- 
vanceof all personal observation. The conclusions 
thus reached, and for which I will proceed to argue 
for the conviction of others, may be thus stated; 
that nearly all the higher and firm, as well as the 
lower lands, lying between the Chesapeake and 
Albemarle Sound, are rendered and kept too wet, 
not (as universally alleged,) because the soils or 
their under beds are of too close texture to per- 
mit the superfluous rain-water to siptk, and so be 
discharged by percolation; but because the under- 
lying sand-bed is already surcharged with water, 
and by its supplying moisture upward, rsnders the 
moist earth incapable of drinking up more water 
from above. 

In the upper and middle ranges of the tide-water 
counties of Virginia, the reaching the sand-bed, 
and its being dry when reached, are essential con- 
ditions to the construction of a good ice-house — 
the dry sand bottom serving immediately to absorb, 
and convey away, by downward filtration, all the 
water formed by the melting of the ice. This is 
the operation of the principle of drainage of the 
higher beds, by the agency of a dry (or drained) 
upper layer of the sand-bed below. It is also es- 
sential to the utility of every well, that it should 
be sunk through the upper and dry layer (if there 
be such) of the sand-bed, and into the water- 
glutted lower part, for the purpose of its furnish- 
ing a permanent supply of water. And if, as gene- 
rally in the flat low country, the sand-bed is full 
of water to its top, (unless after long droughts,) 
and is so surcharged that the water is pressed up- 
ward , then , in wells there dug, not only would water 
be obtained as soon as the sand-bed was reached, 
but the water would rise still higher, and even near 
to the surface of the land in very wet seasons. 
Thus, every well in this low country may afford 
evidence of the existence, height, and character 
of the sand-bed at its top, and also the height to 
which water will rise therefrom, and how near 
the surface of the land the upper bed must be in- 



DRAINAGE . 



19 



juriously affected by tlie vvaler glut below, and 
whether permanently, or but for the times of wet- 
test seasons. Hence, it follows, that little as has 
heretofore been noticed, or thought of, in regard 
to these important facts, and the more important 
deductions from them, and few as are the residents 
who have thought at all on these particular points, 
it is only necessary for farmers and thinking men 
to reflect upon, and apply the facts they already 
know, to be assured of the true principle and me- 
thod of drainage for their land, which will now 
be more fully explained and argued. 

VI. The underlying sand-bed and its opposite opera- 
tions in regard to draining. 

Whether the underlying sand is of one continuous 
bed connected throughout, or broken, or separated, 
is not important. It is enough that it is general, 
and nowhere known to be wanting. Neitlier is its 
general thickness known, nor is its bottom but 
rarely accessible or known. But it is certain that 
this sand-bed lies upon some lower bed, impenetra- 
ble to water from above; and which bed, in many 
known cases, is marl. But whatever may be the 
lower bed or its texture, the sand-bed itself, however 
open and loose in texture, if already glutted with 
water, is incapable of receiving more. Therefore, 
there is no layer of earth so impenetrable by wa- 
ter, as any earth, and even sand, already full of 
water; and, in less degree, all dampness or mois- 
ture of the underlying bed of earth is so much im- 
pediment to the reception of rain-water from above. 
The following rough figure will serve to exhibit a 
profile or section of the supposed strata of the low- 
lands; but to render the differences of level appa- 
rent to the eye, it is necessary greatly to increase 
the thickness of the strata, and the rate of their 
dip, in the figure, exceeding the natural and actual 
conditions. 

S. E. N. W. 




Suppose this figure to represent the surface soil, 
(a 6,) and also the inferior beds, all dipping very 
gradually, (and very much less than in the figure,) 
from northwest to southeast, or in the direction 
from the falls of the rivers towards the ocean. 
The finely dotted line, c d, indicates the horizontal 
level. The upper bed, next below the surface soil 
(1,) let us first suppose here to be clayey, or of 
close texture, and not readily permeable by water. 
The next below is the sand-bed, which is wholly 
glutted with water, or partly dry (at top,) accord- 
ing to its level, or dip, or the variable supply of 
water, and its manner of discharge. The next 
bed, (3,) is of marl, or other impermeable earth, 
or otherwise, from its constant wetness, incapable 
of receiving more water from above. 

Now, of all the excess of rain-water that falls 
on the whole surface of the tide-water region, (as 
everywhere else,) part flows off over the surface 
of the land, and of that which remains, part is 



sooner or later evaporated, and part sinks as low 
as it can be admitted into, or absorbed by the 
lower earth. The greater discharge of rain-wa- 
ter by its flowing off will be on hilly surfaces, and 
soils of close and com|)act texture. The greater 
discharge by downward percolation, or filtration, 
will be on the most sandy or porous earth, (if dry 
before and to enough depth, and the more so if on 
level surfaces. Whatever water is not t'aken off 
by these two modes, can be removed only by eva- 
poration, and until so removed, the remaining ex- 
cess of water must saturate the soil, if not cover 
it in part, in stagnant pools, and, for the time, de- 
stroy its productive power, and prevent all proper 
tillage labors. Every transient occurrence of such 
wet condition must be injurious to tillage lands, 
and the frequent occurrence of such conditions, 
even if each one be transient, is enough to render 
even rich arable land of very little value. 

Of the rain-water that falls on the higher lands 
(at and above «,) and that sinks into the earth 
below, and which is too much to be held absorbed 
by the next beds, (1,) the excess must sink still 
lower, and go to supply or to surcharge the sand- 
bed (2,) below. And all the water in that bed, 
whether filling it wholly, or only its lower portion, 
would be slowly but continually pressing laterally 
in the direction of the dip, (towards e.) to seek 
(and find, ultimately,) a long delayed discharge in 
the lower channels of rivers. Although the beds 
of earth may be nearly horizontal, the slightest 
degree of their general dipping must induce the 
operation stated. Thus, the supply of water to 
glut the sand-bed is not only increased by rain- 
water fallen immediately above, and over porous 
upper beds, (at 1,) but also another and continuous 
supply is pressing on laterally, derived from higher 
levels of the sand-bed (2,) and from rains that fell 
many miles distant, on the higher country. And 
therefore, while the upper layer of the sand-bed 
in the higher country, (or temporarily in the 
lower country,) may be left dry, (as represented 
above the level of the dotted line at c,) at the 
lower level of the same sand-bed, and at the same 
time, it will be necessarily surcharged with water, 
which, not finding sufficient discharge in its gra- 
dualand slow descent along the dip of the bed, 
presses with all the weight of its higher-lying 
water in every direction, and not only downward 
and laterally, but also upward. This is evident 
even to the eye. For if the water received partly 
on a higher and distant surface, (near to and also 
far north westward of a,) serves to keep the water 
in the sand-bed no higher (at any one time) than 
the horizontal line at c, it will still fill the Avhole 
depth of the sand-bed as descending farther east- 
ward. As the sand-bed dips, the water confined 
therein (by the higher bed being but lightly per- 
meable,) would be pressed by the weight of the 
higher and remote water (rising to c,) and, by a 
well known law of hydrostatics, would rise as high 
as the line c, if having an upward vent. And pre- 
cisely such a vent is afforded by a well, sunk at lo, 
in which the water reached in the sand-bed (2) 
will rise to the level of d c, or as high as may there 
be the then height of the supply of water near to 
c. Thus, in nearly every well in this low-land re- 
gion, the water usually rises above the sand-bed 
which yielded the water; and after great falls of 
rain, or long continued wetness of the earth, the 
water supplied by percolation only, and mainly 
from a distance, rises much higher than usual, 
and, in some cases, to within one or two feet of 
the surface of the land. 



20 



DRAINAGE 



So far, for more clear explanation, it has been 
supposed that the higher bed, (1.) was more or less 
impervious, and so served to confine in the lower 
sand-bed its water, and greatly to resist and im- 
pede its escape by upward discharge. But if, as 
is more general, the higher bed (1) is of texture 
permeable to water, that difference does not mate- 
rially vary the circumstances as to the need and 
manner of draining. A pervious upper bed will 
absorb more freely and speedily all the water that 
hydrostatic pressure would force upward, so as to 
leave much less visible results of such pressure in 
particular places, as in wells and deep ditches. 
But in either case there would be the same gene- 
ral evil to the upper earth and surface soil, of 
moisture derived from below; and the same remedy 
"required, of discharging the injurious supply of 
water, by tapping its reservoir below. 

To whatever height the water (proceeding from 
the sand-bed) can rise in the unobstructed passage 
afforded by a well, (or an auger hole, bored for 
trial,) to the same height must there exist the 
force to raise the water, though more slowly, by 
filtration, but by the same hydrostatic pressure in 
all the neighboring ground. The bed of earth 
lying over the glutted sand may be so close (in its 
moist condition) as lo be impervious to the descent 
of rain-water, from the surface, wliich would act 
only by the pressure of gravity. But scarcely any 
earth is close enough to prevent the absorption of 
water, pressed upward by the much stronger force 
acting on the water confined below. Therefore, 
even when the sand-bed may be as low as six or 
eight feet below the surface, and a bed of unusu- 
ally close texture between, the confined water may 
be so strongly pressed upward as to reach within 
two feet of the surface. In such cases injurious 
moisture will rise still higher, by capillary attrac- 
tion, and more evidently over sandy than a close 
sub-soil or under-bed. It is owing to this condi- 
tion of things, that many spaces, without showing 
any standing or flowing, or even the slightest 
oozing water, either at the surface or in shallow 
ditches, are always damp and cold, produce only 
aquatic grasses or weeds, and exhibit every indica- 
tion of wetness except the actual and usual pre- 
sence of water. But after every rain, and even 
light rains, water will stand in puddles on such 
places, if level, even though the soil and sub-soil 
are sandy and open. For moist sand is soon filled 
by water to repletion, and wet sand will hold 
water on its surface like a dish. 

Thus, I infer that the whole of this low land is 
underlaid by a sand-bed, glutted with water to its 
top, and which sand-bed is generally so near the 
surface soil as to affect it injuriously by water from 
below. But even if this confined water lay too 
low to affect the surface earth directly, it would 
do it indirectly, by preventing the rain-water from 
sinking, and its excess being discharged by down- 
ward percolation. If the sand-bed below were 
dry, or always free from water for its upper twelve 
inches only, (as near c,) that upper layer of dry 
sand would serve as natural under-draining for all 
the upper earth. Such is the condition of things 
under the excellent and dry low grounds of Bran- 
don, on James river; and such is inferred to be the 
case with all the similar low lands, which, though 
level and of stiff soil, require but little draining 
labors, and can dispense with all under-draining. 
The upper layer of the universal sand-bed, being 
there dry, is always ready to receive and to dis- 
charge below all water smkingfrom above. Thus 
these fine lands are under-drained by nature. And 



the only reason why that general under-drainage 
is not perfect in operation, and ample for all wants 
of tlie land, is that this dry sand is many feet (10 
to 14) below the surface of the land, and the in- 
tervening beds are of clayey and compact texture. 
Even these impediments would not prevent the 
surface being generally and perfectly dry, if with- 
out any artificial drainage. But the natural drain- 
ing process is too slow, and therefore the aid of 
some surface ditches are there needed to pass off 
more quickly the temporary rain-floods. 

But when, instead of the upper sand being dry, 
and so serving to drain the upper beds, the whole 
sand-bed is full of water, and that water is pressed 
upward, then all the upper beds are kept more or 
less wet-or moist, and are thereby rendered unable 
to receive any more rain-water from above by fil- 
tration or percolation. The stiffest and closest 
clay, when dry, is full of minute fissures; if no 
moister than usual at some feet below a dry sur- 
face, such clay will absorb water from above, and 
slowly pass, any excess, by percolation to an ab- 
sorbent or receiving bed below. But earth made 
wet or moist by water forced upward from below, 
whether it be close clay or loose and coarse sand, 
can receive no more from above, and all excess of 
rain-water left there in pools must remain until 
evaporated. 

We may best estimate the enormity of this evil, 
of the wet earth below preventing the rain-water 
from sinking, by the condition of the level wood- 
land still remaining in a state of nature and with- 
out any aid from ditches. On such land, in wet 
seasons and usually in every winter and spring, the 
excess of rain-water remains and covers most of 
the surface, and in many cases for weeks or 
months together. This is universally ascribed by 
the proprietors and neighbors to the soil or its 
under-earth being too stiff and close to permit the 
descent of water; and this is held even where the 
upper bed is open and light enough for any purpose. 
Now let us proceed to examine the actual remedy 
or the drainage plan in general use, and its ef- 
fects, and next the different principle of drainage 
and method which 1 propose. 

VII. The usual and general plaii of draining and its 
radical defects. 

The actual plan or system of draining which is 
in general and approved use in this region is very 
uniform in the general principle and features, and 
also very simple. It consists in digging numerous 
ditches, mostly shallow and small, merely for the 
purpose of collecting therein and conveying from 
the field so much of the excess of rain-water as 
will flow over the surface. These ditches are at 
various distances, according to the greater or less 
excess of wetness of the land, and they are of va- 
rious degrees of imperfect effect, according to 
their number and depth. But on no farm is this 
mode of ditching effectual for drainage, and on a 
few only has it ever approached that desired end, 
where the ditches were much deeper than usual 
and great labor has been bestowed, though on an 
erroneous system. 

The numerous swamps, so-called, or spaces, 
either broad or narrow, a little more depressed or 
level than the adjacent ground, serve to afford 
ground for outlets in deep and large ditches acting 
as main water-carriers through these swamps to 
some one of the numerous rivers or deep creeks 
with which the whole counti^y is intersected. Some 
of these deep and main discharging ditches may 
severally receive the waters from two or three 
different farms and properties, and extend for 



DRAINAGE. 



21 



miles before reacliiiig the final outlet. Still, bji 
combined effort for the common benefit, these 
longest ditches may be made ciieaply enough for 
their object, and may be made deep enough to suit 
for any system of drainage. 

Supposing that a proper outlet has been secured 
through which to discharge the water into the 
river, then each farmer next proceeds to dig the 
receiving smaller ditches to collect the excess of 
rain-water from the field. In most cases the farms 
are so level that the ditches may be laid off in al- 
most any direction, and usually they are made to 
coincide with the cardinal points of the compass, 
or otherwise made parallel with, or perpendicular 
to some road or other straight and long outline of 
the field. As the most laborious, and also the 
most perfect draining on this plan, and on the 
stiffest soil, is seen in Perquimons county, the ope- 
rations there will be held especially in view in the 
following description: 

In beginning a large drainage operation, or in 
renewing and substituting a former irregular and 
imperfect laying off, the main ditch of the field or 
farm is first dug to discharge into some common 
main water-carrier, or other deep outlet. But so 
uniform is the general level and shape of surface, 
that the required main drtch can usually be made 
straight, and to agree, in the preferred manner, 
with the other smaller ditches, and with the direc- 
tion of the ploughing. Into the "main" and 
decf)est ditch, (usually 3 to 4 feet deep,) and at 
right-angles to it, and 1,000 feet apart, the pa- 
rallel "leading" ditches enter, which are 2 to 3 
feet deep. Then crossing the last, and parallel to 
the main ditch, and 150 feet apart, (on some farms, 
only 125 feet,) are dug narrow "tap-ditches," 18 
or 20 inches deep, and which empty, at both ends, 
into the "leading ditches." The land is tilled in 
five feet beds, laid off parallel with the smallest or 
tap ditches. Still, all these ditches, with the nar- 
row beds and their alleys, (on water-furrows,) are 
deemed insufficient to carry off the excess of rain- 
water, without the further aid of "hoe-furrows," 
which are opened first by a plough, and afterwards 
cleaned out by hand-hoes after every ploughing of 
the field, because every ploughing (or horse-tillage) 
fills them. These "hoe-furrows" are made across 
the narrow beds, at irregular distances of from 18 
to 25 yards and empty into the tap ditches. A " hoe- 
furrow" is made to pass through every slightest 
cross-depression, and wherever else deemed most 
necessary. Thus the alleys of the five feet beds 
first receive the surplus and overflowing rain-water; 
and so much thereof as can flow off over a level, or 
nearly level surface, passes out of the open ends 
of the alleys (from both ends) into the leading 
ditches, or across the beds along the hoe-furrows 
into the tap-ditches, and thence to the leading 
ditches. From the latter the water passes into 
the broader, and deeper, main ditch, and from it 
to the common outlet of the farm. The hoe-fur- 
rows (or grips) are a little deeper than the alleys 
of the five feet beds. The alleys may be 6 or 7 
inches below the crowns of the beds. This plan 
is, on some farms varied by the leading ditches 
running parallel to the main ditches; but the num- 
ber of ditches and furrows, and the spaces between, 
are not varied. 

The object of this plan, and the only possible 
operation of it, is to draw off the excess of rain- 
water mainly over the surface; and even with ail 
these numerous ditches and furrows, on perfectly 
level land, no water can flow ofl" until it has satu- 
rated the soil, or stands above it in numerous little 



shallow pools; and if the field is under tillage, and 
has been deeply ploughed, all the ploughed layer 
will suck up as much rain-water as it can retain, 
before any surplus will begin to flow off over the 
surface, or, by lateral and horizontal percolation, 
to ooze out from the soft soil into the lower fur- 
rows and ditches. Such draining at best only 
begins to remove the injurious excess of water 
from the soil, after it has effected all the damage 
it can do for the time. It is true that every hour 
of the continuance of the water would greatly 
increase the first damage of the saturated soil, 
and that continuance the numerous drains serve 
to cut short and reduce, in time and in evil effect. 

Some of the main ditches in Perquimons are 
of much greater depth and of unnecessary width 
at the bottom, (which should always be narrow, 
no matter how wide at top. and how deep a ditch 
may be.) Mr. J. T. Cranberry's main ditch is 
7 to 8 feet deep; and, though without its being so 
designed, this ditch reached the sand-bed and 
tapped its glut of waier. This great depth had 
been sought only for the different purpose of hav- 
ing a sufficient vent for the great quantity of sur- 
face water to be discharged from the field. 

This system cuts up every field, by spade-dug 
ditches, into separate spaces of little more than 
three and a half acres each. Then bridges are 
required at suitable crossing places over every 
main and leading ditch, and also over every tap- 
ditch when they are crossed by a farm load or a 
temporary track for hauling in a crop. As many 
other rough wooden structures are required to give 
passage to water and to exclude hogs where ever 
a fence crosses the tap or other ditches. The la- 
bor necessary to dig and keep open all these ditches, 
with all the other accompaniments and the in- 
creased labor of tillage, &c., among these open 
ditches, must be enormous. It would not be much 
more costly, and would return much more nett 
profit, to adopt, instead, the modern English sys- 
tem of deep and covered underdraining — which 
system, after all, is but the drainage of surface- 
water, derived from rains, by downward filtration, 
and as soon as may be effected after the rain has 
fallen on the surface in excess. 

This plan of draining by numerous ditches sepa- 
rating and surrounding small rectangular spaces 
was first used on the low (embanked marsh) rice- 
lands of South Carolina, where it was not incon- 
venient for tillage, inasmuch as no ploughing or 
other team-labor was practicable on the soft and 
miry soil. Thence the same system was trans- 
ferred to much of the high and firm land under 
cotton culture, but which needed some attention 
to drainage. Such ditching was practiced as late 
as 1843, on much land in Charleston district which 
scarcely needed a ditch (dug by the spade) any 
where. But there, while these frequent ditches 
were deemed indispensable by many planters, they 
were also deemed so great an impediment to the 
plough that that implement was excluded there- 
from, and these fields were cultivated by hand- 
labor entirely. In Perquimons, full use is made 
of the plough despite of the many obstructing 
ditches. And it has not been very long since 
cross-ploughing also was in use among these many 
ditches — the corn rows being laid off' and ploughed 
across as well as lengthwise of the long and nar- 
row rectangles. Of course the culture then must 
have been flat or without beds and intervening al- 
leys, preserved throughout the year's tillage, as 
since and now. 

VIII. Evidences or illustrations of the existing inju- 



22 



DRAINAGE 



riesfrom superfluous water, and of the proper means 
Jer relief. 

The plan or principle on which I would propose 
to drain the lands of this low country is very dif- 
ferent from what has heretofore been unusually 
aimed at, and, but partially effected. Instead of 
removing the excess of water by passing it off 
over the surface through numerous shallow and open 
tap-ditches, I would, by a few deep and mostly 
covered drains, tap the glutted sand-bed below, 
and thus, as much as practicable, lessen or entirely 
abate the previous upward pressure and direction 
of the confined water, and thereby relieving the 
upper bed of earth of its present supply of mois- 
ture from below, make it dry and permeable, and 
so permit, for the future, the excess of rain-water 
to sink into the drained upper bed, and be thus 
drawn off by percolation to the still lower sand- 
bed, (then empty enough at top to receive such 
temporary additions,) and thence the water to pass 
along the dip of the sand-bed, and far beneath the 
surface of the land, to the nearest deep stream or 
other place of discharge. 

It is admitted that, except as to my own li- 
mited operations and experience, on a single farm, 
(Marlbourne,) there is almost no such practical 
proof of the effects here anticipated in regard to 
this great low-land region, of which so little is 
well known to me. But recent, and few, and 
limited as have been my means for personal ex- 
amination and investigation in this region, there 
can be little doubt of the general existence of the 
one important natural feature on which my plan 
and reasoning rest, viz: the under-lying and water- 
glutted sand-bed, having a general, very slight, 
continuous dip. If this is the general and natural 
condition of the land, and if it is a sufficient cause 
for its present wetness, then it follows that the 
true principle of drainage, which sound theory 
wotild direct, is to draw the water from the bottom, 
and not from the top, as is the only function of 
shallow ditches. It may be, in some few localities, 
that the glutted sand-bed lies too low to be reached 
by ditches without too great labor and expense. 
But even such objections to the practical opera- 
tions will not invalidate the correctness of the 
theory. And such good objections to practice 
probably exist in but f^ew cases of limited localities. 

It is manifest, to the least consideration, that the 
usual and universally approved plan and procedure 
cannot drain this land. As to the moisture infil- 
trating from the glut below, or driven upward 
by hydrostatic pressure, or drawn still higher and 
diffused as mere dampness by capillary attraction, 
it is obvious that this moisture Cannot be lessened 
by any number of ditches in the upper earth. As 
to the excess of rain-water, when remaining sepa- 
rate on the surface, some of it will flow off in 
shallow ditches. But none will so pass off, from 
a level surface until the excess of w^ater stands in 
small pools. Nor can any of the surplus water 
escape by filtrating laterally through the soil until 
the soil or upper earth has drunk up more rain- 
water than it can retain. These conditions of 
extremely wet earth, (and the more if of recentlj' 
and deeply ploughed land,) must exist before the 
present system of drainage can even begin to act, 
and must still remain in force after the ditches 
have ceased to draw from the land that portion of 
the water which cannot be held absorbed. All 
the still remaining water, (and enough for the 
time to convei't tilled soil to mire,) will be removed 
only by evaporation, as none can sink into the 
earth below in its present and uaual wet state 



caused by the glut of water in the sand-bed, and 
the moisture always rising therefrom. 

The best farmers seeing the imperfect operation 
of this plan of drauiing, have sought the desired 
improvement in digging all their ditches deeper 
than usual. But, unless such deepening reached 
and tapped the sand-bed, the deeper ditches could 
not gather any water from below, and could con- 
vey no more from the surface of the land than 
would be done by shallower ditches in somewhat 
longer time. 

IX. The upper beds alwaijs permeable if drained. 
But even if it be conceded to my argument that 

the sand-bed could be tapped, and the previous up- 
per layer of its water be drawn off and kept per- 
manently lowered, it would still be denied by most 
of the farmers that the rain-water can then sink 
through the earth. This denial would be founded 
on the supposed impervious texture of the inter- 
vening bed of eartli. This belief of the under 
earth being impermeable to water is not only gene- 
ral in Perquimons, (and with much color of truth 
there.) where the upper earth is extremely close 
and stiff, and in some places eight feet or more in 
thickness, but also in Princess Anne and Norfolk 
counties, where the soil and under earth are abun- 
dantly porous, and not generally more than four 
feet thick. 

Further, the immense quantity of rain-water 
which remains long, and covers much of the sur- 
face on the fore«t land in its natural condition, and 
which water passes off where ditches have been 
dug, makes it seem incredible that even half of all 
this water could sink through the earth below. 
It is also a prevailing belief that there is more rain 
in this region than general. I presume that no more 
rain falls from the clouds-, but as very little of the 
excess of rain-water sinks into the earth, (because 
of its wetness below,) there is far more of the sur- 
plus rain-water to be removed and discharged by 
ditches than in other localities. In some of the 
nearly as level but higher lands of parts of South- 
ampton and Surry, in Virginia, sc-.nrely a ditch is 
required, and there is no evil of rain-water re- 
maining on the surface. T!.:ie, in furnishing a 
pervious soil and sub-soil and dry underbeds, nature 
has effectually under-drained such lands, and in so 
doing has enabled most of the surplus rain-water 
to disappear by downward filtration. The great 
quantity of rain-water in the low-lands which passes 
off in the ditches is owing to the small absorb- 
ing power of the always wet lower earth, and, in 
less degree, of the upper also. 

X. Examples of the effects of the true principle of 
drainage, in both arlijicial and natural operations. 

Though there has been very little practice in 
this region on the plan of tapping and drawing off 
the confined water of the inferior sand-bed, and 
almost none by design, there still have been some 
such operations, and with marked beneficial re- 
sults. Mr. J. T. Granberry, in Perquimons, and 
Mr. E. H. Herbert, in Princess Anne, tapped the 
water of the sand-bed when they anticipated no- 
thing of the important effect, and merely designed 
to make unusuallj' large and deep ditches. Mr. 
W. Sayre, then of Norfolk county, acting on my 
general views and advice, given to him before I 
had seen his land, or even any part of the region 
in question, sought foi' and found the wet sand-bed 
at four to five feet deep, and to which no ditch on 
his farm, or near to it, had before penetrated. 
He deepened the greater length of his general out- 
side ditch to the sand, and found great increased 
draining benefit therefrom in the single year which 



DRAINAGE 



23 



he afterwards continued to own and reside on the [ 
farm. One of the effects could scarcely be mis- : 
taken. In the summer after the first opening of 
this deep encircling ditch to the sand-bed, the well, 
half a mile distant from the ditch, ceased to sup- 
ply water, and continued thus nearly dry until in 
the following winter. This well, (or another very 
close by,) had always before, and as far back as 
known, yielded water abundantly, and through the 
dryest seasons. The subsequent and lonfj failure 
must have been caused by the cutting oil, by the 
deep outside ditch, the supply to the well of water 
from the sand-bed. It is difficult to appreciate 
such slow and gradual effects, or to know always 
to what particular causes to ascribe them. Such 
eflects from this mode of drainage may be slowly j 
increasing for years before reaching their max- j 
imum of beneficial operation. I 

But on this principle there are many other and 
great drainage operations which nature has ex- 
ecuted, and which show the beneficial results that 
are here promised. Every river or smaller deep 
water channel in this low-land is, in effect, a deep 
drain cut into the glutted sand-bed, and which cut 
or tapping has been operating to draw off" the 
neighboring confined water, and to prevent its up- 
ward pressure so far as circumstances permitted. 
Along the sides of every river and deep branch, 
the bordering lands, for half a mile or more in 
breadth, are much drier than any other adjacent 
lands of equal elevation and like surface. This is 
the case in Durant's Neck, where the land is very 
level, and also lower than is usual for the firmest 
soil. This is the long peninsula of good land lying 
petween Perquimons and Little river, and extend- 
ing to Albemarle Sound. 

The depressed shore of a river does not serve 
the better to drain bordering land because the 
river is a mile or more in width. A covered 
drain, having but a four-inch pipe or passage for 
water, if serving to reduce and convey away all 
the excess of under-water, and to prevent its pre- 
vious upward pressure, and so leave the upper 
layer of the sand-bed dry, would, for draining ef- 
fect, serve all the purposes of the widest river of 
no greater draining depth. If the natural depres- 
sion for the river's passage serves to drain by 
lateral percolation half a mile width of the bor- 
dering land, a deep artificial drain sunk a foot or 
two into the sand-bed, and whether open or co- 
vered, may be expected to do as much. And if 
so, deep parallel drains a mile apart perhaps might 
drain the intermediate land. And such drains, 
even if ten feet deep and covered, would still be 
made and kept at less cost than the never-ceasing 
trouble of the numerous shallow and open ditches 
in- Perquimons. But in most other places, as Prin- 
cess Anne and Norfolk counties, the glutted sand- 
bed is not usually more than four feet below the 
surface, and drains sunk into the sand, and if four 
or even eight of them to the mile of width or 
cross-distance, would not be very costly, and could 
scarcely fail of their object. 

XI. Draining vertically by bore-holes. 

Where the water is closely confined in the sand- 
bed by the compact texture of the wet overlying 
earth, and the upward pressure of the confined 
water is considerable, (because of the quantity, 
or height, or weight of the water at the higher 
sources,) a portion of the water may be drawn 
higher than the top of the sand-bed by the use of 
the auger. As in most of the wells the water rises 
to more or less height above the top of the sand, 
so it would rise as high in holes bored by an inch- 



auger. And if the main or discharging ditches 
were sunk but a few inches lower, then the water 
could be thus drawn up in holes bored in such 
ditch, the water rising through the boring would 
continue to flow off along the bottom of the ditch. 
In such cases, the holes, if found operative, should 
be bored every thirty to fifty yards in a new ditch, 
as some will not act at all. Each such bore, when 
acting to bring up a continued stream, is an artifi- 
cial "boiling spring." And if there is sufficient 
quantity and force of the water thus rising, there 
is no more reason why the artificial boiling spring 
shall be obstructed and its flow stopped than a 
natural one. 

XII. The presence of quicksand both as an impedi- 
ment or an aid to effectual draining. 

It was by such borings (commenced for a very 
different object) that I first discovered the general 
existence and the properties of the water-glutted 
sand-bed on my own farm, and by them drew up 
and passed ofl" water in considerable quantity be- 
fore my main ditch had been sunk within two feet 
of the sand-bed. But if it is practicable and safe 
to go deeper with the spade, this vertical draining, 
in open ditches, should be but a temporary expe- 
dient, as it was in my own case. If the water wall 
rise, say two feet in such bore-holes, to the then 
bottom of an open ditch, it will operate partially 
to reduce the glut of water below and prevent so 
much of its upward pressure. But the reduction 
will not be of any water that cannot force its pas- 
sage so high. The greatest value of the fact of 
tiius draining up water by boring, is the sure indi- 
cation it affords of the still greater success of a 
future deeper digging of the ditch. If water thus 
rises to the height of two feet, it will rise with 
much more force and longer continuance if the 
ditch is sunk deeper and the water has so nauch 
less height to rise. If by still later and deeper 
digging the ditch is sunk into the sand, then there 
will no longer be vertical or boiling springs, but, 
{ instead, water oozing or flowing in laterally from 
I the upper sand and along the whole line of such 
': digging. Of course, and the more if the sand is 
very fine, such continuous opening is better than 
any number of auger-holes, even if the bores 
should always continue open and discharging. 

The inability to execuie, at once, so extensive 
and costly an operation, compelled me to deepen 
my main ditch at different times and in several 
successive years. But there is another reason for 
such gradual deepening, which will probably be 
found to operate in all diggings into the sand-bed 
in this low country. It is most likely that this 
water-glutted bed is everywhere a "quick-sand," 
almost semi-fluid, and which, as soon as dug into, 
will flow in from the sides ar.d fill with sand the 
deeper excavation. And if the digging is per- 
sisted in it will cause caving or falling in of the 
solid and dry upper margins of the ditch, so that 
any effectual or permanent deepening at that time 
will be impracticable. If quick-sand is the greatest 
impediment to continued and successful deepening 
of the digging, its presence is also the surest proof 
of the necessity for the work and the best surety 
for its final and complete success. Quick-sand is 
nothing but a very pure and loose sand of which 
all the interstices are glutted with water. There 
is no coherence of the different particles of such 
sand, and the water contained therein is nearly as 
much in bulk as the solid matter of the sand itself, 
and when drained and passing off the water is con- 
tinually renewed by lateral supply from more or 
less remote and higher sources. Hence quick-sand 



M 



DRAINAGE 



is setni-fluid, and flows in almost as freely as wa- 
ter, fills every lower cavity of an open ditch, and 
is like to enter every crevice of the filling material 
of a covered drain, and finally to choke the nar- 
row conduit. Nothing can be worse than quick- 
sand to oppose the immediate and complete exca- ' 
vation of a ditch, whether to be covered or left 
open. But delay and time afford the remedy. 
When quick-sand is reached the digging should at 
first go no deeper than its surface, or no deeper ; 
into the sand than may be without causing da- 
mage. Then the oefore confined water, which 
rendered the sand "quick" or semi-fluid, will find [ 
a discharge into the ditch. The previous upward 
pressure will be removed. Later, the water will 
subside, leaving free the upper sand, thus drained 
into the ditch, and as low as the level of the dis- j 
charge. In a year after the first operation, the i 
then bottom of the ditch will no longer be of , 
quick-sand, as at first, but will have become firm, [ 
and may then be deepened some six or eight inches 
more, before reaching what is still quick-sand \ 
below. Thus so much deeper and fuller discharge j 
is given to the water, and so much more of the 
quantity removed, that thereby another layer of 
the then highest quick-sand is gradually converted 
to dryer and firm sand, and which may also be 
subsequently taken out safely by the spade. In 
this manner, and easily, and with best effects, I 
have, in three successive years, gained two feet of 
depth below the original surface of a bad quick- 
sand, in which at first I could not keep open the 
shallowest permanent passage. If all the glutted 
sand-bed of the low country (as inferred) is also 
of quick-sand, in like manner it may at first be 
barely tapped by ditching, and afterwards, and 
gradually, be dug into deeper, until all the inju- 
rious excess of under-water has been reduced and 
removed. 

XIII. Tests by u^hich to judge, in advance, of the 
expediency or success of desired draining operations, 
and illustrations of effects. 

Such is my view of the cause of the general 
wetness of this low-land, region, and such the pro- 
posed remed)'. If the principle is sound, and the 
deductions true, it is enough for my argument, and 
also for very extensive applications of the theory 
in practice. But it is not for me, slightly informfed 
of particular facts and localities as I am by per- 
sonal observation, to offer particular directions for 
practical operations, or to state the natural and 
various conditions of different localities, which 
may either invite or discourage and forbid efforts 
to drain by means of reaching the deep-seated 
sources of the injurious waters. In many or most 
localities of this great low-land region the pro- 
posed means may be used both cheaply and pro- 
fitably. In others, owing to the greater depth of 
digging necessary, the operation, though equally 
sure of success, might be of more cost than profit. 
Every judicious farmer acquainted with the local 
details can best determine as to the applicability 
of my general plan to his own farm and vicinity. 
But there are certain indications and preliminary 
tests of the need for and probable success of such 
undertakings, which each farmer should consult 
in advance. These will now be mentioned. 

The shallow wells on every farm will have 
shown whether a sand-bed has been reached, 
whether its being tapped brought up water, and at 
what height above the sand, if any, the water 
stands permanently, and how much higher after 
winter, or the wettest seasons. These facts would 
serre to show how high the water may be drawn 



up by borings, and how much below that height it 
may be sunk by deep ditching. Thus, any depth 
of ditching below the highest temporary rising of 
the water, in wells or bore-holes, would do so j>ie 
good in draining off" or reducing the glut below, 
and its upward pressure, though such benefit might 
be but for the wettest seasons. But the deeper the 
digging the greater would be the reduction of the 
hurtful excess of water. And the remedy would 
not be complete, until the main ditches were sunk 
into the sand-bed, so as to take off' from the adja- 
cent ground, all the former upward pressure of 
the under-water, and also render the upper layer 
of the sand-bed dry, and therefore capable of 
freely imbibing new supplies of rain-water infil- 
trated from above. 

Next, as to the assumed permeability to water 
of the upper bed of earth. It has been admitted 
that the upper beds, even if of the most sandy and 
loose texture, if full of water below, are imper- 
meable to more water standing on the surface. 
But if such wet earth be deprived of all super- 
fluous moisture, (as by any proper draining,) then, 
what was impervious before, may become as per- 
vious as desirable. Every one has observed such 
change in clay, when dug into, and the sides and 
bottom of the excavation left exposed to a drying 
atmosphere. Of course, such extent of drying, 
and the consequent great opening of fissures, is 
not to be looked for under the covering earth. 
But in long droughts, earth not aff'ected by under- 
water, will become as dry as dust for four feet 
or more below the surface. This is often seen in 
the digging of graves in summer; while in that 
dry condition there must be formed innumerable 
small pores and fissures, caused by contraction, 
in the most compact earth, through which water 
would freely sink, and in great quantity, and as 
low as the earth had thus dried, and fissures been 
formed. And these fissures could not be again 
entirely closed by wetness and expansion of the 
earth, so as to exclude all percolation of water. 
It is not for me to assert that there will be enough 
of these fissures, and reaching to sufficient depth, 
to serve to carry down by percolation all the ex- 
cess of rain-water, even when gradually falling 
on the earth. But there can be no question that 
water will be so absorbed, and conveyed away in 
great quantity, in a soil with under-beds thus 
drained, when the same earth, before beingdrained, 
would have been incapable of absorbing any wa- 
ter below the quickly saturated surface soil. 

For the good effect and success of the plan of 
draining Ihe earth from below, it is not necessary 
that all or even a large proportion of the water 
in the sand-bed shall be so drained off". It may 
be that the bed is twenty feet thick. However 
thick the bed, its being full of water and sur- 
charged, (proved by the water pressing upward,) 
shows that the supply of water from the higher 
parts of the country is greater than the sand-bed 
has openings for its lateral discharge. Thus, sup- 
pose the whole natural discharge of the sand-bed, 
into rivers and other outlets, and by evaporation, 
to be in volume, as 19, and the supply of water 
from rains, and from the more elevated and dis- 
tant parts of the bed, to be as 20, then it is seen 
that the excess of supply of 1 part can only be 
removed by being forced upward through the earth. 
This is the water that operates injuriously, di- 
rectly, by causing wetness to the under-earth, and 
indirectly, by preventing the excess of rain-water 
from being discharged by sinking. Then, if by 
tapping the sand-bed, this twentieth part of the- 



DRAINAGE 



25 



water only is removed, the whole upward pres- 
sure, and the surcharge is prevented. But further, 
if by deeper draining the still full (hut not then 
overgorged) sand-bed has its water drawn off and 
lowered only one foot of its 20 or more of sup- 
posed depth, that upper foot of sand, thus made 
dry, will serve as under-drnining (or absorbent) 
material for all the upper earth, and may receive 
and continually pass off" all the surplus rain-water 
that may thereafter fall on the surface. Such is 
the fortunate natural condition of the best low- 
ground farms on the lower James river before 
adverted to — best, not so much for their great na- 
tural fertility, and good constitution, valuable as 
these are, as because they are thus under-drained 
by nature. The upper layer of the sand-bed un- 
der these lands, is always dry for some feet down. 
This dry layer, though some twelve feet or more 
below earth of clayey texture, is the true cause 
of the usual dry condition of those soils. And 
although the wells reach water in abundance at a 
few feet lower in the sand, that water has no up- 
ward pressure, and cannot damage the higher beds 
of earth and soil. In these cases the natural 
means for the lateral discharge of water from the 
sand-bed, (in its high level,) are greater than 
needed for the quantity supplied. Therefore, the 
higher layer of the sand-bed is Icept free from wa- 
ter, and always ready to receive, and convey still 
lower, any new and temporary supply from the 
upper beds and soil. If, on the contrary, the ave- 
rage supply of water had ever so little exceeded 
the means for average discharge; this upper layer 
of sand would have been always over-gorged with 
water, and the surface would suffer with wetness, 
as do the low-lands on the Pamunlcey river, and 
all this great low-land region here under consi- 
deration. 

Though wet earth is perfectly impervious to the 
entrance and passage by percolation of more wa- 
ter from the surface, (pressing downward, and by 
its own weight only,) I doubt whether any earth 
in the tide-water region is impervious. If pre- 
viously drained, at least, none such has occurred 
in my extensive draining labors and experience. 
Much soil is made more impervious by having been 
ploughed or tilled when wet. This operation ap- 
proaches, in effect, to what is called ''ptiddling," 
or kneading wet clay, or loam, which is done for 
the purpose of closing all the pores, and making 
the earth impervious to water. Such, in the 
greatest perfection, is the working of clay for pot- 
tery, and in less degree, for making tiles and 
bricks. Hence it is that deep and proper plough- 
ing, introduced on land before often ploughed wet, 
and always sliallow, has well-known draining ef- 
fect, because the "puddled" and impervious pan 
IS broken up, and the rain-water then permitted to 
sink through the natural fissures of the lower 
earth. 

NOTE. 
It was after the whole of this article had been written that 
I saw (Ma}', ISoTi in the city of Charleston, South Carolina, the 
best exemplification, and practical proof, of the soundness of 
the views expressed above. Under the city, and also, (as in- 
ferred from a superficial and hasty glance,) under all the 
higher ground of the whole neighboring country, there lies the 
bed of sand as described above. The top of the sand is gene- 
rally within three feet of the surface of the higher and firm 
ground on which the city is built. As deep in this sand as to 
the level of 20 inches above low tide mark, excavations were 
then in progress, in which were to be constructed large cul- 
verts, designed to carry away, with the drained water, the 
filth of the city. These deep culverts were in and across the 
higher parts of the site of Charleston, and extending on a 
level from the. tide-water of one river to the other. The 
greatest depth was 14 feet — and more than 10 feet in some 
D 



places in the sand-bed, and rarely less than 7 feet. The sand 
was wet to its top ; and a little below, it was quick, and becom- 
ing more and more fluid, and yielding more and more water 
as opened, to the bottom of tlie excavation. Water was 
usually reached at the depth of three feet l)elow the surface of 
the street. In the street fire-wells, the water usually stood 
still higher. I saw one, just before it was drawn off, and laid 
dry b.v the new and deeper digging for the culvert, in which 
the water stood within IS inches of the surface of tlie ground. 
No digging for agricultural draining could have been afforded 
of one-fourth this depth into the quick-sand — nor could any 
works for agricultural objects and profits, only, have been 
coniplsted speedily, and at such great expense of labor and 
other appliances. Therefore, no mere agricultural drainage 
operations could have offered such full and satisfactory evi- 
dences of the correctness of my theoretical views, as did then, 
and will still more hereafter, this great city work, of which 
drainage was but a secondary object, and a mean sought to be 
used, (in the collected spring-water, held back, for a time, by 
flood gates,) to wash and float off to the rivers, the soluble and 
other putrescent filth of the city The ditch, opened to lay the 
culvert in, was 10 feet wide, with perpendicular siiies As 
soon as the excavation reached the uppi-r quick-sand, a nar- 
row trench only was then dug along the middle, and kept 
deepest by the strong force of as many laborers as could have 
room to work. This central and narrow trench served to 
drain the sand which was then left on the sides — and by being 
thus made dry, it became almost immediately firm — and in a 
few hours this former quick-sand could be easily removed 
by shovels. But before entirely removing this layer of sand 
to the outer limit of the designed excavation, the farther 
caving in, (from without the limits) was prevented by driving 
down a close shield of thick boards, placed vertically, and 
with their lower edges sharpened. These boards were sup- 
ported, and kept in their designed direction, by a strong frame- 
work of timbers, stretching across the entire width of the 
ditch. These sharpened boards were driven downward as the 
excavation was lowered, and were always kept a little below 
the still fluid surface of the sand, and which would cave in, if 
not at first held up by this strong and continuous barrier. 
After thus securing the sides, and removing the sand through 
a course of some two feet thick, then another like narrow 
trench would be dug, and by its aid, anotjier layer of quick- 
sand would be first drained, and then thrown out. In this 
manner, the designed level for the bottom would be reached, 
and therefore the culvert (of arched and well cemented brick- 
work, laid on a floor of plank,) was constructed, and, for each 
portion, completed very soon after the excavation had been 
begun. Thus, by great expense of labor, and of mechanical 
supports and other appliances, this work, for each short dis- 
tance, might be completed, and made secure, in a day, which, 
if for agricultural draining, might have required, (in the ne- 
cessary intermissions of labor,) years for completion, and to 
be sunk onlv one-third as much depth into quick-sand. 

But though the depth of this great work, for the draining 
and cleansing of a city, can never be imitated, or even ap- 
proached in depth, in the country, or for agricultural profits, 
it is not therefore the less in proof of the correctness of my 
previous views of the natural features which cause the gene- 
ral wetness of the low country, and the proper and efficient 
means for, and the true principle of drainage for such lands, ff 
And, in advance of the completion of this work, and of all 
manifest draining results thereof, I will venture to predict that 
these results will be such as must be inferred from my reason- 
ing stated above, and that these results will be evident for all 
the ground witliin half a mile, or perhaps much more, from 
the lines of the draining culverts. 

XIV. Some of the farming praclices of the low- 
lands — Defects and proposed improvfments — Rotations 
of crops — Peafalloui, and narrow, and broad-bed 
tillage. 

In my hasty journeys through this country, 
thoucch diligently engaged in taking general and 
superficial views, I had but little opportunity to 
observe extensively, or to examine the details of 
farming. Therefore, nothing like minute descrip- 
tion will be attempted, and only general remarks 
offered on some of the most striking advantages 
and capabilities of the lands, and defects of their 
culture. 

The early settlements were made on the dryest 
places, and on most of these, tillage has been 
continued almost incessantly, from the first set- 
tlement to recent, or to the present time. Under 
such treatment, and with the necessary, or at 
least certain and frequent wet ploughing of land, 
always too wei in winter and spring, it is surpris- 



26 



DRAINAGE . 



ing that fields so abused have not become poorer 
than they are. 1 saw none that were so unpro- 
ductive as the poorest fields of the higher tide- 
water counties in Virginia, which have not been 
marled or limed, or as all such most exhausted 
lands were before marling and liming were begun; 
and wherever the formerly most reduced lands 
have latterly been occupied by good farmers, they 
have been greatly and rapidly improved. Sundry 
such cases are to be seen, and especially in Per- 
quimons county. The oldest tilled lands are here 
referred to. The greatest recent improvements 
have been the bringing under culture the exten- 
sive firm swamp lands which have lost little or 
nothing of their original and great fertility. 

On the farms of Messrs. Francis Nixon and J. 
T. Granberry, I saw the manner in which these 
swamp lands are brought under cultivation. The 
large trees, not needed for timber or fuel are 
beited and so killed. The heavy forest growth is 
mostly of gum, poplar, oak, and large swamp 
pine, (used for naval timber,) some of the latter 
of great size. The smaller growth is cut down 
more than once, and mostly dies. The land is 
used for grazing, until the roots are enough rotted 
to permit ditching and ploughing. This will be in 
about five years after the belting of the trees. 
Then the principal ditches are dug on the plan 
before described, and as they are to remain, ex- 
cept that when encountering a very large tree in 
the route, the ditch is there curved around the 
tree. The next spring, (or before) the smaller 
ditches are also cut, and the land ploughed and 
planted in corn. 

There is no marl in this region, except at a few 
exposures of small extent — or rather, the marl lies 
too deep to be accessible. Some marl has been 
excavated and used in Princess Anne. There are 
extensive Indian banks of mussel-skells on the 
borders of the Chowan river; and in Currituck, 
an Indian bank of oyster-shells stretches almost 
continuously for forty miles- along the eastern 
margin of the sound. There are also in shallow 
waters of the sounds immense beds of oyster- 
shells, in the places where the animals lived, be- 
fore being killed by the water becoming fresh. 
So there is no want of material for calcareous 
manuring, independent of the supplies of lime and 
^of shells, available from the waters of the Chesa- 
peake. Some of the Indian bank shells have been 
used, and more lime, and to good effect, as re- 
ported, and better than ought to be expected on 
land not well drained. Next after supplying the 
first necessity, draining, liming would be especially 
beneficial to all the lands of this region. Besides 
other reasons, and bencfitsto be gained, lime applied 
on the new and rich lands would serve the better 
to preserve their fertility; and, on the poorest lands, 
it will enable the most speedy and complete ac- 
quiring of fertility. But the best effects from lime 
can be counted on only on land previously well 
drained, or, otherwise, not needing draining. 

The great crop of the Nojcth Carolina counties 
is corn. Next to this, and especially in Perqui- 
mons, is wheat. These two are the only great 
crops for market. The lands generally, if not 
suffering much from wetness, produce corn well. 
On the new clearings of firm swamp lands, ditched 
well on the ordinary plan, fifty bushels to the acre 
may be made. I saw a small field of wheat in 
Princess Anne, (where that crop is rarely at- 
tempted, and never on large spaces,) and several 
large fields in Perquimons, that in growth equalled 
■what I had just before seen on some of the best 



lands on James river. There is no better land for 
the growth of wheat than the soils of close and 
medium texture here. But the imperfect draining 
of the fields must prevent the product and quality 
of the grain being in proportion to the growth of 
straw; and, moreover, the humid air of the whole 
region, (caused mainly by the general want of 
draining, and the consequent great evaporation 
from the earth,) makes the wheat crops more 
liable to be diseased with rust. 

It was with much surprise, some years ago, that 
I heard that the best and largest crops of wheat 
in Perquimons, and in some other parts of this 
region, were still reaped by the sickle, or reap- 
hook. This primitive mode of harvesting, which 
is older than the days of the patriarch Jacob, and 
which formerly was general in the United States, 
as it still is in Kurope, 1 had supposed had every- 
where, in this country, been substituted by the 
more expeditious scythe and cradle, if not by the 
still more modern reaping machine. And when 
first informed of the ancient usage remaining here, 
I had erroneously inferred that il. indicated very 
slow progress in agricultural knowledge and im- 
provement. But, when on my visit, while finding 
this practice far more extended than my previous 
idea of it, I also heard reasons in its defence, 
which seem to maintain its good economy. Nei- 
ther is this practice confined to small crops. The 
best farmers and largest v;heat growers, who 
sometimes make crops of more than five thousand 
bushels, reap them with the sickle. I knew that, 
by this mode, there may be avoided much of the 
great waste of wheat that is usually made by 
cradling; but had supposed that the slower opera- 
tion of the sickle, and the high prices of harvest 
labor, and the scarcity of laborers at any price, 
had caused this implement to be abandoned every- 
where in the United States, except for spots of 
rank and tangled wheat, or on steep hill-sides. 
Even for these latter circumstances, in which the 
proper use of the sickle would always be prefera- 
ble, I have not been able to resort to it, because 
none of our laborers are now accustomed to it, 
and they would make awkward and very slow 
work. But in this district, the regular use of the 
sickle has never been abaiidoned, or suspended, 
and, therefore, the laborers are expert; and in a 
heavy growth of wheat, a good hand, with the 
I sickle, can reap more wheat than he could, on the 
j same ground, with the cradle, besides saving much 
1 more of what is cut down. The difference of 
! waste will more than pay the diffierence of amount 
j of labor and greater expense through a crop. 
I Further, by using the sickle, and cutting as high 
\ as can be to save the wheat, most of the tall straw 
is left standing as stubble in the field, which is the 
cheapest, and as good a disposition as can be 
made of it for manviring the land, and makes a 
vast saving of labor in the hauling, threshing, and 
stacking, compared to the handling of all the 
greater length of straw, as usually cut by the 
scythe and cradle, or by a reaping machine. But, 
if admitting that the reaping of a heavy growth 
of wheat by the sickle is preferable, still, in a 
merely agricultural country it could not be done, 
for want of the additional force of hands which 
this process certainly requires. But in the pecu- 
liar condition of this district, this objection does 
not apply. There is so great a number of la- 
borers employed in cutting timber, and in the 
fisheries, that there are enough, for the higher 
wages of harvest, to supply the then extraordinary 
demand for labor on every wheat farm. 



DRAINAGE 



27 



Light growths of wheat are often reaped by- 
cradling; and where both modes are thus in use 
together, the more extensive use of the sickle is, 
in itself, good evidence of the heavy crops of 
wheat raised here by good farmers, and on good 
land. Perquimons has generally siiff soil, and is 
much the best wheat producing part of this region, 
(not including the Roanoke bottom.) In Pasquo- 
tank the lands are also good, but lighter, and better 
for corn. Those of Camden and Currituck are 
inferior in value of soil and agricultural products, 
and also as to improved farming. Currituck, espe- 
cially, is so intersected by navigable waters, and 
bounded by the sound and the ocean, that the 
labors or pursuits of the residents are all more or 
less connected with the water and its products. 

Except corn and wheat, there is scarcely a crop 
of large culture raised for market in the North 
Carolina counties. Cotton, which is so universally 
and extensively cultivated in the nearest higher 
counties of North Carolina, and even to some 
extent in those of Virginia, is not attempted here, 
as a crop, for market. The general prevalence of 
wet soil is a sufficient cause for the absence of this 
crop. Oats, and especially hay, would be good 
crops for this humid climate and soil. But neither 
is raised for market, and hay scarcely at all, the 
fodder and shucks of corn serving in the place of 
hay, as everywhere in our corn-growing country. 
Yet vessel loads of coarse and mean hay, from the 
northern States, are continually brought here for 
the use of the towns, and for the teams of the 
lumberers working in the swamp forests. There 
is no better country for grass east of the mountains. 
On the farm of Edward H. Herbert, Esq., Princess 
Anne, on a large space, and elsewhere in Norfolk 
county, in small lots, 1 sav,^ dry meadows of or- 
chard grass and clover that would have been 
deemed good for the best grass districts, and which 
well attested both the fertility and good drainage 
of the fields on which these crops grew. 

In the counties in Virginia, where near to Nor- 
folk, and with easy access by the regular steamers 
to the great northern cities, "truck" farming, or 
cultivating green vegetables and fruit for sale, is 
the sole business on sundry of the most valuable 
farms, and it enters more or less into the culture 
of many others. This business is carried on ex- 
clusively, largely, and successfully in Norfolk 
county, on river farms only, and within a few miles 
of the wharves. The limitation to these localities 
is compelled, first, because of the necessary ready 
access to the steam-vessels, and also because it is 
only in close neighborhood to a considerable town 
that numerous laborers can be hired whenever 
wanted for gathering vegetables and fruits, which 
requires, rarely, many hands, and for short and 
uncertain lengths of time. This kind of farming 
is the most perfect in all its operations, the most 
costly in money and labor, and the most produc- 
tive, not only in the gross returns, but in nett pro- 
fit, and, as reported, it is the only kind of farming 
in the county that is well conducted. It is not 
long since this "truck farming" has been estab- 
lished on any thing like its present important posi- 
tion; and in that time, the lands near Norfolk and 
Portsmouth, suitable forthis business, and so used, 
have increased, in market value and price, from 
500 to 1,000 per cent. 

This market gardening, or "truck-farming," in 
these large operations, is a peculiar and remarka- 
ble branch of agriculture, which well deserves 
thorough examination, and more full report, than 
this slight notice. It is an important and admira- 



ble kind of what in England is called "high farm- 
ing," requiring great expenses, but returning so 
much the larger profits. Compared to nearly all 
other farming of the surrounding and neighbor- 
ing lands, the "truck" farms appear like an oasis 
in a desert. The quantity and the cost of manures 
applied on these farms, and the magnitude of other 
expenses, and still more the great returns of pro- 
ducts and profits would be astonishing, if not ap- 
pear incredible, to a stranger. Still, this business 
is the most laborious employment of a proprietor, 
exacting unceasing attention, care, and anxiety, 
for every hour. Nothing short of untiring indus- 
try, care, and also good judgment, can attain suc- 
cess and its great rewards; and even all these will 
not always prevent heavy losses. The business 
is precarious, and subject to gieat changes and 
hazards, and losses, which no industry or care can 
guard against. A single severe frost, at an un- 
usual time, may destroy a valuable crop, for which 
all the expenses have been incurred, except for 
the gathering and shipping; and which loss may 
reduce the nett receipts expected by thousands of 
dollars. 

In the Virginia counties, the required drainage 
and culture are of much easier execution than in 
Perquimons, and yet both are more negligently 
performed. No where does there seem to be any 
regular system of rotation of crops. This essen- 
tial part of good farming is neglected everywhere 
by poor and bad farmers. The most energetic and 
successful cultivators and improvers here have 
been so much occupied in the heavy labors of 
clearing and draining their new and rich swamp 
lands, that they had no opportunity to use any re- 
gular rotation of crops. This is a sufficient reason 
as to the newly cleared lands, for which, for some 
years, regul'ar rotation would not be required, and 
would even be improper. But this circumstance 
and the continued additions of new surface to the 
tilled land should not prevent the older and poorer 
land being kept under a proper rotation, or at 
least under a proper succession of crops. And the 
neglect is the more reprehensible and strange, inas- 
much as the farmers of this region possess peculiar 
facilities for rotations, in the pea-crop, and a cli- 
mate admirably adapted to its growth. The li- 
mited territory on which both the pea and the wheat 
crop can grow well, (the one suiting so well to 
prepare for and aid the growth of the other,) I 
deem the most favored of all agricultural regions. 
Still more strange appeared to me the general 
neglect of peas as a manuring crop in this region, 
from some of the best farmers of which 1 obtained 
most of my early practical instruction as to this 
particular value of the pea-crop. Yet this great 
means for improvement, on most farms, seems to 
be but little used or appreciated. It is true, that 
peas are planted, as a secondary crop, in every 
field of corn, and the returns are highly valued. 
But this pea-crop, except so much as is gathered 
for seed or for sale, is generally eaten on the 
ground by the hogs designed for slaughter, (greatly 
indeed for benefit in that respect,) so that very 
little of the crop, except the roots and stems, go 
to manure the land. I heard of no separate crops 
of broad-cast peas, (or "pea-fallow,") to prepare 
and manure for a succeeding wheat crop, the most 
valuable use to which the pea-crop can be applied. 
It is a frequent practice here for the land in corn 
(and secondary peas) not to be sown in wheat the 
autumn of the same year, (as is usual in Virginia,) 
but for the field to remain until the autumn of the 
following year, and then to be sown in wheat. 



28 



DRAINAGE 



This practice leaves the field idle and useless all 
the spring and summer, when in that time it mig,ht 
be sown m peas, and bring a manuring and cleans- 
ing crop to precede tlie wlieal, without any loss of 
time or of land. Tliis is a regular part of my own 
established rotation, and, as supposed, its best 
feature, though my more northern position and 
shorter warm season render the pea-crop much less 
productive and beneficial than in this more favored 
region. Still more than this omission, another is 
common and as reprehensible. Wheat, in some 
cases, is made to follow wheat in two successive 
years. If, in such cases, there was merely inter- 
posed between these two crops a broad-cast crop 
of peas, (for which there is plenty of growing 
time,) that addition only would serve to substitute 
a cleansing, enriching, and judicious succession of 
crops, for one that is inexcusable and abominable. 
Clover is made on most of the good farms of Per- 
quimous, and used as a preparing (or fallow) crop 
for wheat. With the superior facilities for the 
best growth of peas, if I were farming in this re- 
gion, 1 should much prefer pea-fallow to clover- 
fallow to precede wheat. 

The reason offered for the total omission of pea- 
fallow is the |;reat and engrossing tillage labors 
required for the great crops of corn, and also for 
the wheat harvest, both of which occur with and 
include the very time in wliich the land for broad- 
cast peas should be ploughed and sov* n. This is 
true, and a sufficient reason, if it is necessary to 
plant in corn as much land as the laboring force 
can cultivate. But it would be much better to 
secure the great benefit of a manuring pea-crop to 
precede wheat, by the (temporary) sacrifice of 
omitting to plant as much corn as would release 
enough labor for the additional pea-crop. This 
sacrifice was a necessary incident of my own 
change (in 1848) of the five-shift rotation, without 
pea-fallow, to the six-shift, with one entire field 
under broad-cast peas. The fields of both corn 
and wheat, by this change, were reduced, severally, 
to five-sixths of their previous size. Yet the vvhf at 
crops have continued since to increase, on the 
general average, and to exceed more and more the 
previous entire product, and so have the corn- 
crops, except in the first year only of the reduced 
extent of cultivation. Yet the advantages of ma- 
nuring by the pea-crop in my locality ayd climate 
are very inferior to those of this region of North 
Carolina. 

While the many firm swamps remained gene- 
rally under forest, these lands afforded excellent 
"range" for live-stock, or a great quantity of 
food, especially for cattle and hogs. But this be- 
nefit, (if it was one,) has almost ceased in the 
best cultivated parts of the counties on the sound. 
Such is Durant's Neck, the narrow and level and 
very low peninsula which stretches for twelve miles 
between Perquimons and Li'.tle river to Albemarle 
sound. This land, being but a few miles wide 
anywhere, and bounded nearly around by these 
deep waters, is in consequence better drained, na- 
turally, than the interior lands, and is very pro- 
ductive. Nearly all this " neck" is enclosed, and 
an unusually large proportion of the wliole is un- 
der tillage, and there is scarcely any unenclosed 
forest or waste land for ranging live stock, and 
none that affords any grazing profit. I know no 
place where it would be so profitable to dispense 
with fences, as is done by mutual agreement, by 
the proprietors of three several neighborhoods in 
Prince George county. Virginia, each including 
from 4,U00 to 8,000 acres, and making from 10 to 



15 farms and separate properties. If the cultiva- 
tors of Durant's Neck would do the like they 
would only have to make one short and straight 
fence to enclose all their fine farms, and save all 
the cost of their present useless fences. Yet 
every farm and field is now separately fenced in, 
and some oi the proprietors have no n)aterials for 
fencing, and buy, and transport from a distance, 
all their rails. This locality, more strongly than 
any other, shows the absurdity of our fence Jaws, 
and also the strength and Jong vitality of old. 
habits and opinions, when the former good reasons 
for them liave long ceased to exist. If the live- 
stock were reduced in numbers to one-fourth, and 
these were well kept, by being herded within the 
farms, one cow would yield as much profit as four 
do now. And when the grazing stocks were so 
lessened in number there would be much surplus 
grass left to manure the pasture or other land. 
While three-fourttis of all the present fencing 
might be dispensed with, the other fourth would 
serve to make a sufficient pasture enclosure for 
every farm. For nothing in geometry, is more 
clearly demonstrable than the proposition that it 
will require greatly less length of enclosure to 
fence in the cattle of any well cleared and settled 
section of country, than to fence in all tlie fields 
and crops to protect them from the cattle if left at 
large. One-fourth of the present fencing in Du- 
rant's Ne".k would suffice not only to make on 
every farm a proper pasture enclosure, but also 
the general and joint barrier fence against all 
other people's stock. Most of the farmers in 
Prince George, who have joined in these arrange- 
ments, if not situated on the border, have no fence 
except the pens in which to confine the animals 
at night. But this extreme course is not true 
economy. 

In Princess Anne, there still remains so much 
uncleared and swamp land, that the leaving cat- 
tle to range at large is deemed very profitable to 
the owners, and perhaps, in general, it is there, 
more an offset to the expenses of fences, under 
our fence law, than in any other courity of lower 
Virginia. The open swamps bear reeds in great 
quantity, which afford abundant and excellent 
food for cattle through winter and summer. There 
are herds of cattle that have become wild, and 
are made use of when wanted for beef, only 
by being hunted and shot. These wild cattle 
would be very profitable to their owners, as they 
require neither food nor attention, except that 
they are as much at the disposal of every other 
person who may be inclined to shoot and steal 
them. 

It becomes a slight observer of a newly seen 
agricultural district of novel and peculiar cliarac- 
ter, to be diffident of his own opinions thereon, 
and more especially, when they are in opposition 
to those of the judicious and experienced resident 
farmers. One of such subjects I will mention, 
though without any view of urging the superior 
value of my opinions and practice, in this respect 
on my friends in this region, who unanimously and 
strongly protested against them, at least for their 
lands. Their experience of facts, in contradic- 
tion, certainly deserves more to be respected than 
my theoretical views as to this region, even though 
they have been sustained by the results of my own 
practice and experience elsewhere. 

As stated before, the tillage generally, and on 
the best managed farms, is in narrow beds (five 
feet,) for corn, and the same size is preserved for 
wheat. The beds are reversed for every crop, 



DRAINAGE . 



29 



both of corn and wheat. I v/ill not here repeat 
my objections to tiiis narrow bed tillage, nor my 
reasons for preferring (where any are necessary) 
beds of twenty-five or more feet in width. These 
views have been stated and argued at length in 
dilierent former publications. (The latest and 
fullest articles on tillage in broad beds, and also 
on draining in general, are in "Essays and Notes 
on Agriculture," 1855.) I will onl}' say liere, that 
all tiie reasons for preparing wide beds for low 
and flat lands generally, apply with greater force 
to the lands of this region, and especially in Per- 
quimous, because they are of more regular level, 
and with fewer alternations of slight depressions 
and elevations, than any other low-lands within my 
knowledge. The best farmers here, with whom 
I have argued this question, object on various 
grounds to my broad-beds, but especially, because 
their frequent cross "hoe-furrows" are deemed 
indispensable, and if the broad and higlier beds, 
and their deeper alleys were in use, the "hoe- 
furrows" would have to be made still deeper, and 
require more labor to dig, and to renew after 
every ploughing or horse-tillage, and be even in- 
convenient for the ploughs to cross. This objec- 
tion would be valid, if indeed it would be neces- 
sary (with the broad-beds, and deeper alleys) to 
retain the hoe-furrows; but this necessity 1 doubt. 
For with so much higher beds and deeper alleys 
between them, on land scarcely varying from a 
level, or from a regular and gentle slope, 1 think 
that the deeper alleys would substitute liie hoe- 
furrows, and render them superfluous, except where 
a cross depression of surface required a particular 
cross grip. In my own practice, on the Pamunkey 
flats, the surface is much more irregular, yet there 
are no grips kept across the bed?, except along the 
cross depressions. If the inequalities of surface 
level were as rare as on the Perquimons lands, my 
cross grips would be fewer and less necessary than 
they are. 

But if my plan of broad-beds would suit this 
region, there might still be added thereto another 
improvement, which t commenced using in 1855, 
and which has been continued since on the Marl- 
bourne farm, with increasing confidence and ap- 
proval. Without taking time here to describe and 
recommend the operation in general on the dif- 
ferent circumstances of my own farm and prac- 
tice, I will merely apply the plan to the present 
existing divisions and ditches of the Perquimons 
lands.* We will suppose that these present ditches 
are all necessary and proper to be retained — though 
such is not my opinion, if a different system of 
drainage were in use. Then suppose merely the 
change that each of the rectangular enclosed spaces 
of 150 feet wide, instead of being, as now, in 
thirty beds of five feet wide, was ploughed into 
six ,beds, each of twenty-five feet width. After 
two or three years ploughing, and tillage, and 
gathering of these wide beds separately, they 
would be as high, and their intermediate alleys 
as deep as desirable. Then, instead of continuing 
to plough each bed separately, the first furrow 
should be cut alongside of the central alley, and 

* When I first began this manner of flush ploughing of low 
and bedded land, and with considerable appreliension as to its 
coinplete success, it was not known to me that any other far- 
mer had either used or thought of the same method. But, 
subsequently, when recommending it to tlie trial of K. H. 
Herbert, Esq., of Princess Anne, as an important aid to his 
usual efficacious practice of draining, he informed me that he 
had already introduced and used this plan of flush plougliing 
on his land earlier than my first trial of it, and had found the 
results entirely satisfaotory. 



turning the slice into it. This furrow should begin 
and end at 75 or 80 feet distance from the ends of 
the rectangular "slip," or at (or something less 
than) the same distance of the (Central alley from 
the sides of the slip. Turning the plough at that 
distance, another furrow should be cut alongside, 
and throwing the slice to the first, thus making, a 
"list" in the former central alley. So tlie plough- 
ing would proceed around this first list, cutting 
across the ends as well as along the sides, and 
throwing every furrow-slice towards the centre of 
the ploughing. This plougliing, though flush, and 
cutting across the ends as well as along the beds, 
and with no regard paid to the alleys, would 
scarcely alter the outline of the previous surface, 
and would not lessen the height of the crowns of 
the beds or the depth of the alleys, except the 
central alley, which would in time be filled, and 
would not then be needed. The outside furrows 
would just reach the encircling ditches of the 
"slip," turning tlie depth and width of a furrow- 
slice from each at every repetition of such plough- 
ing. One or two furrows run along each of the 
old alleys, after the flush plougliing, would clean 
theut out and put tlie broad-beds in their original 
shape, and they would be more thoroughly broken 
by this mode of ploughing. Every successive 
ploughing of the land to prepare for any crop 
should be done in like manner. The tendency and 
operation would be to raise the central part of 
each rectangular division so ploughed around, and 
to lower and slope the sides and ends, or margins, 
next to the surrounding ditches. After a few such 
ploughings the shallow tap-ditches would be, to 
the eye, almost obliterated, or changed to mere 
ploughed alleys or grips. Yet, in fact, they might 
be deeper than before, and would certainly be 
more operative for surface drainage than before. 
The preserving and cleaning out of these "tap- 
ditches," instead of requiring spades and shovels, 
would thereafter be as well done by the last finish- 
ing furrows of the plough. These ditches would 
no longer present any obstruction to the crossing 
of ploughs, or partly loaded carts If desired, (and 
it might be even desirable in future time,) the corn- 
rows and their ploughing, in narrow beds, might 
be directed across the beds and tap-ditches. Fur- 
ther, the end margins of the "slip" being equally 
depressed, and sloped to the edges of the larger 
leading ditches, these would be much more easily 
crossed by teams, and fewer and smaller bridges 
would be required. Thus, in the course of time, 
each separate "slip" would be converted to one 
broad bed of 150 feet wide, and gently rounding 
surface, and 1,000 feet long, (the present dimen- 
sions of the separate divisions,) with sloped mar- 
gins and ditches between deeper than before, yet 
presenting either little obstruction, or none, to the 
crossing of ploughs and teams. 

POSTSCRIPT. 

Lands on the Chowan and Roanoke. 

A later excursion to a portion of Chowan county, 
and to some of the best farms on the Roanoke 
river enables me to add something to the foregoing 
notes of this generally uniform region, and espe- 
cially in remarkable exceptions, on the Roanoke, to 
this general uniformity of agricultural character. 

In Chowan county, my view extended only over 
the lands within 12 miles of Edenton, and from 3 
to 4 miles back from the Chowan river and Albe- 
marle Sound. The general elevation of the sur- 
face is from 11 to 14 feet above the level of the 
Sound — and the land is more uniform in leyel 



30 



DRAINAGE 



than any other that I had before seen. The soils 
are moderately stiff, and of good texture for pro- 
ducing wheat. Before being cleared of the forest 
growth, and dildhed, most of the surface of the 
land was subject to be covered by the water left 
by heavy rains. The system of drainage in gene- 
ral use is similar to that of Perquimons. But the 
small parallel (or "tap") ditches are wider apart — 
usually 180 feet. According to this system, the de- 
tails of draining were well executed, and eti'ective; 
and the lands best drained, (especially those of 
Dr. Thomas Warren,) were very fertile and pro- 
ductive. These, where seen in their natural state, 
seemed to the eye, and by their growth and wet- 
ness, to be swamp. But in fact, they are of the 
highest level of the neighborhood, and among the 
dryest, after being drained and cultivated. The 
natural forest growth was piincipally of black 
gum, ash, maple, with some oak and pine — and 
with these, a general under-growth of reeds. For 
miles, no change of level of the surface was visi- 
ble; and the slight general descent of surface 
could be known only by the direction of the flow 
of water in the larger ditches. The farms border- 
ing on the Sound, only, have some narrow depres- 
sions, of a few feet only in depth, which serve as 
exceptions to the otherwise general level of the 
surface. The water in the wells of Edenton and 
the neighboring country is generally about 13 feet 
below the surface of the land. This would indi- 
cate that the water-glutted sand-bed here lies too 
low to produce the damage elsewhere usual to 
land, by keeping water on the surface — or to 
afford a facility for draining operations, by tap- 
ping the sand-bed by deep drains, or by boring. 
On these points, my hasty and limited observa- 
tions, aided by inquiry, afford no information better 
than conjecture. 

The broad Chowan is the only river of all this 
low-land region, east of the Roanoke, which re- 
ceives any considerable supply of water from 
higher and distant sources, or is filled by any other 
than the refluent water of Albemarle Sound. And 
even as to the Chowan, all the water brought by 
its upper tributaries, the Meherrin, Nottoway, and 
Blackwater rivers, if alone, would not usually fill 
the twentieth part of the broad and deep bed of 
the Chowan. So that even this greatest of these 
neighboring rivers is but a partial and limited ex- 
ception to their general character of having almost 
no head-springs, or supplies from remote sources. 

But the Roanoke is remarkably different in these 
respects. Its very distant sources are in the Alle- 
ghany Mountains, and they make large streams, 
at all times, even at the base of these mountains. 
Its bed, throughout its long course to Albemarle 
Sound, is very narrow for the great quantity of 
water flowing therein, and which ordinary supply 
is enormously increased by the transient rain-floods 
coming from the upper country. These rise to 
great heights, and cause great injury to the very 
rich and extensive bottom lands bordering on this 
river. But f )r the rare and terrible disasters to 
the crops, caused by these high freshes, they would 
be of great improving benefit to the fertility of 
lands they overflow, in the abundant deposit of 
richest alluvium which the water leaves. This de- 
posit has made, and maintains, the Roanoke lands 
the richest on the Atlantic slope; and they would 
be more valuable than the bottom lands of any of 
the rivers of that slope, but for their griater lia- 
bility to be overflowed, which is owing to the re- 
markable narrowness of the whole bed and course 
of the river, compared to its length, and to the 



volume of water which it conveys. The bed of 
the river, and even to its outlet into the Sound, is 
too narrow to discharjje its floods; and hence they 
overflow the bordering low grounds, of the second 
terrace as well as the first or lowest, to their great 
damage. Thus these rich alluvial low grounds of 
the Roanoke are greatly subject to disaster from 
being overflowed by floods, from which danger the 
low borders of tlie other rivers of Albemarle 
Sound are almost entirely exempt. 

That the low lands of the Roanoke are so dif- 
ferent from all of the neighboring rivers, is owing 
but in part to the great length of its course, from 
its distant mountain head-springs. This indeed 
causes the great volume of the floods, as well as 
their great burden of rich alluvium. But there 
is still an additional cause for the obstructed dis- 
charge, in the different geological character of the 
land over which the lower course of this river 
passes. The lower channels of the other neigh- 
boring rivers, on both sides, together with their 
bordering lands, seem all to have subsided, at some 
far i-emote time, below their former levels. But 
the bed of the Roanoke seems to have preserved 
its original elevation, if indeed it has not been ac- 
tually up-heaved still higher. The primitive rock 
shows in ledges under the channel of the Roanoke 
far below the foot of the great falls; and even 
high above the present height. of water in the 
bank at Halifax ferry. The river is very uniform 
in breadth, and not varying much from about 120 
yards, from the falls to Albemarle Sound. 

The " first low ground" or lowest terrace, gives 
the richest soil — which however is not black, or 
dark-colored, but of I'eddish yellow, or hazel loam. 
The "second low ground" is worse in quality, but 
still is good land. The "third" is still worse; and 
there is in some cases still a fourth terrace, nearly 
as high as, though evidently lower than, and dif- 
ferent from, the highest table or ridge land, which 
is usually sandy and naturally poor. 

Corn is the great crop of the Roanoke lands. 
Though fine crops of wheat are raised by the 
Messrs. Burgwyn, in Northampton, North Caro- 
lina, and J. C. Johnston in Halifax, giving evi- 
dence of the fitness of the low-ground soils for 
that crop. Cotton is the next greatest crop to 
corn; and this culture is sufficient evidence that 
the lands on which it succeeds do not naturally 
suffer damage from under or spring-water. The 
farmers have not much to do for drainage, except 
to exclude, by deep and broad ditches and their 
banks, and to vent by culveits, the streams and rain- 
floods coming in from the high lands, and, by dykes, 
to keep ofi' the high floods of the river. Both these 
great objects are well efl'ected only on the pi'oper- 
ties of a few of the planters — at enormous expense, 
but at far less cost than the alternative of losing 
the growing crops usually once in 7 to 10 year*, on 
an average. 

The land nearest to the river, whether of the 
first or second terrace, is always higher than the 
exterior of the same terrace farther back from the 
river. This shape of the surface offers the highest 
foundation for the dykes next to the river, where 
they are required to be placed. There are great 
differences and frequent changes in the elevation 
of ground bordering on the river, and consequently 
as much difference in the required heights of the 
embankments. The home plantation of Th. P. 
Devereux, Esq., Conniicanara, in Halifax county. 
North Carolina, is protected by an embankment 
rising to the height of 26 feet throughout above 
the low-water level of the river. The highest 



DRAINAGE . 



31 



fresh yet known, before the embankment was made, 
rose 22 feet, and covered the whole plantation ex- 
cept a few acres Much of the dyke, being on 
margin of the hig;hest elevation, is only 4 feet 
high. But one part, which seemed about half a 
mile long, it is 14 feet high. To every foot of 
perpendicular height, there is given 5 feet width 
of base. On Polenta in Northampton, another of 
Mr. Devereux's several plantations, (all of which 
are thus secured by embankments,) the dyke, for 
200 to 250 yards of its length is 17 feet high, and 
more than 100 feet broad at the base. And these 
high embankments are not the only heavy expense. 
For it is through their highest parts (these being 
over the lowest surface of tie land,) that it is ne- 
cessary to keep open large culverts to discharge 
the waters of land-streams and rain-floods, and 
from which, by valves, to exclude the river-floods 
when these are higher than the interior water. 
On this and four other adjacent farms there are 7 
of the large-sized culverts, which cost about f,2000 
each — and three of these are on one only of the 
farms. These culverts are constructed of wood, and 
of course cannot be very durable. Still, great as 
is the expense, for embankment and culverts, for 
each plantation, it is cheaply paid for in the safety 
of a single crop, which would otherwise be lost, if 
without this means for security from inundation. 
Such is the correct reasoning of each individual 
proprietor, and improver in this mode. And thus 
each one, of the few who have yet so improved, 
may secure his own possessions from the floods of 



the river. But it is obvious that every such em- 
bankment, operating as an obstruction, must serve 
to raise the floods somewhat higher on the lands 
still subject to be submerged. And should every 
proprietor exercise his equal right to embank all 
his own lands, and thus the general operation shall 
strive to confine the river within the limits of its 
shores, the attempt must fail, and the floods, rising 
higher in proportion to their lateral confinement, 
will overtop any dykes which can be made by se- 
parate individuals, each working on his own sepa- 
rate plan. It would be very far better, and the 
only means by which general success can possibly 
be attained, if the State were to require such works 
to be constructed on one uniform and the best gen- 
eral pian, for the benefit of all the lands and their 
proprietors. If such general plan confined the 
water to its present channel, that confinement 
would cause much increased velocity and power 
of abrasion, and thereby a deepening of the bed 
of the river, if the bottom is soft enough to be so 
deepened by washing. And if this effect would 
be prevented by only a few narrow ledges of rocks 
too hard to be lowered by abrasion, it might be 
well worth the expense of deeper passages being 
opened through such narrow and harder obstruc- 
tions. All the additional and general depth that 
could be so gained, would serve for the improve- 
ment of navigation of the river, as well as to aid 
the operation of the embankments to protect the 
lands from the river-floods. 



y..z^ 






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